IAAF interview with Irish Coach Br.Colm O'Connell...

In the London Olympics in 2012, David Rudisha produced one of the best performances of the Games when he ran from the front in the mens 800m to set a new world record and winning Olympic Gold in the process. His coach is Br. Colm O'Connell who is originally from Mallow and moved to Kenya to teach back in the late 70's. Following the Games which marked him out as one of the Worlds finest athletes, David Rudisha along with Br. Colm visited Mallow last October.

In a recent interview with the IAAF, Br. Colm talks about his coaching career and his approach to athletes. Just to give you some idea of what it is like for an elite athlete at this level..........and especially for those of you who are constantly racing! ;o) .........Br. Colm said the following........."This time David had a three-month rest after his last race on 29 August, in Zurich. Three months without any kind of training. He needed this long break for charging his batteries – physically and mentally. When he resumed training, we had to be very careful. You could easily catch an injury. Basic conditioning, easy runs, about 60km a week, some gym work, exercises. Slowly but surely we increased the quality, the weekly mileage remained the same. In March, we started adding the track workouts."

On the subject of whether anyone will break 1:40 for 800m, Br.Colm said..."I don’t think 1:40 or below is going to be possible soon. 1:40 cannot be broken in the next two or three years. It will take time: 1:40.9, 1:40.8, etc."

Back in October, I asked Br.Colm the exact same question when he was in Mallow.......Will 1:40 be ever broken? Br. Colm gave the same answer then....i.e. the record may go in small increments but he did say that it was likely that only one person would set those new records and that would be David Rudisha.

The full interview can be seen HERE