Kenya's David Lekuta Rudisha set a new world record of one minute 41.09 seconds in the 800 metres on Sunday at Berlin's Olympic Stadium. His time shaved two hundredths of a second off the previous best mark set by Denmark's Kenyan-born Wilson Kipketer in August 1997. The 21-year-old, world junior champion in the same distance in 2006, was led through the first 400m by pacesetter Sammy Tangui in 48.65sec. “This was my first real attempt to break the world record, I knew I was good, I had trained hard,” he said. “Now that I have run that time, I can say I have the ability to improve and go faster.” Rudisha then managed to keep up his pace through to the line to break Kipketer's long-standing record, something he had recently been threatening to do so promising has been his form on the track. At a meet in the Belgian city of Heusden-Zolder in July, Rudisha timed 1:41.51, an African record and the fastest time in the world since Kipketer set the previous best 13 years ago. Semenya runs season best on comeback World 800m champion Caster Semenya ran a season's best time of one minute 59.90 seconds to easily win her third comeback race here as she rebuilds her career after her sex test ordeal. The 19-year-old South African was back at Berlin's Olympic Stadium, where she won her world crown last August, only for the sport's governing body, the IAAF to demand a gender test into her abnormally high levels of testosterone. Having only been cleared to race again last month, Semenya looked comfortable at the World Challenge meet, her third since her comeback, and dipped below two minutes for the first time since coming back. She attacked in the last 100 meters and breezed past second-placed Cherono Koech of Kenya and third-placed Italian Elisa Piccione Cusma, even though Cherono ran a personal best of two minutes 00.40 seconds. “It feels good to be back in Berlin,” said the teenager. “I did not think about everything that happened after my gold medal, I just concentrated on my race and my time. “My next competition will be Brussels and after that I am looking forward to the Commonwealth Games.” While the Berlin meet has lost the elite Diamond League status, it still produced some good results. Tarike Bekele of Ethiopia ran the fastest 3,000 of the year in 7:28.99. Nesta Carter of Jamaica won the men's 100 in 9.96 seconds. Steve Hooker of Australia, who won the world title last year, failed to clear a height in the pole vault.
