Sebastian Newbold Coe, Baron Coe, often referred to as Seb Coe, is a British politician and former track and field athlete. As a middle-distance runner, Coe won four Olympic medals, including 1500 metres gold medals at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984. He set nine outdoor and three indoor world records in middle-distance track events – including, in 1979, setting three world records in the space of 41 days – and the world record he set in the 800 metres in 1981 remained unbroken until 1997. Coe's rivalries with fellow Britons Steve Ovett and Steve Cram dominated middle-distance racing for much of the 1980s.
The 800 metres, or meters, is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the first modern games in 1896. During the winter track season the event is usually run by completing four laps of an indoor 200-metre track.
Wilson Kosgei Kipketer is a Danish former middle distance runner. He is the second fastest of all time over 800 meters, setting the world record and breaking his own record two more times all in 1997. He dominated the 800 m distance for a decade, remaining undefeated for a three-year period and running 8 of the 17 currently all-time fastest times. He won gold medals in three successive editions of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics. Though unable to compete in the 1996 Olympics near the peak of his career, he earned silver in 2000 and bronze in 2004. Kipketer's 800 meters world record stood for almost 13 years. It was surpassed on 22 August 2010, when David Rudisha beat it by 0.02 seconds, running 1:41.09. Rudisha would eventually go on to further lower the 800m world record to the first and only sub one minute 41 second run. Kipketer still currently holds the indoor world record for the 800 metres.
Nicholas Boone Symmonds is an American YouTube personality and retired middle-distance track athlete, from Boise, Idaho, who specialized in the 800 meters and 1500 meters distances. Symmonds signed with Brooks Running in January 2014 after a 7-year sponsorship with Nike. In college at Willamette University he won seven NCAA Division III titles in outdoor track. Symmonds is a 6-time US National 800 meters champion. He has competed in the 800m at two Olympic Games, reaching the semi-finals in Beijing 2008; in London 2012, he finished fifth in the final, running a personal best of 1:42.95 behind David Rudisha's world record. He won a silver medal in the 800 meters at the 2013 World Championships, having previously finished third in the 2009 final and Third in 2011.
David Lekuta Rudisha, MBS is a Kenyan middle-distance runner who specialized in the 800 metres. He is a two-time back-to-back Olympic champion from the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympics, a two-time World champion from the 2011 and 2015 World Championships in Athletics, and world record holder at the event with a time of 1:40.91 set at the 2012 London Games on 9 August 2012. Rudisha is the first and only person to ever run 800 metres under 1:41, and he holds the three fastest, six of the eight fastest, and half of the twenty fastest times ever run in this event.
Pamela Jelimo is a Kenyan middle-distance runner, specialising in the 800 metres. She won the gold medal in 800 metres at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing at the age of 18. She is the first Kenyan woman to win an Olympic gold medal and also the first Kenyan to win the Golden League Jackpot. She holds both the 800 m world junior record and the senior African record over the same distance. Jelimo is also one of the youngest women to win an Olympic gold medal for Kenya.
Mercy Cherono Koech is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner. She was the silver medalist in the 5000 metres at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics.
The men's 800 metres competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, was held at the Olympic Stadium on 6–9 August. Fifty-five athletes from 43 nations competed. The event was won by David Rudisha of Kenya, the second consecutive and fourth overall title for Kenya in the event. Rudisha would later become the fourth man to successfully defend his Olympic 800 metres title, and the 11th to win two medals of any kind in the event. Nijel Amos' silver medal was the first Olympic medal ever for Botswana. Timothy Kitum of Kenya won the bronze medal.
Botswana competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's ninth appearance at the Olympics.
Athletics was one of the seven sports of the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games. Held between 9 and 11 September, the events were staged at the National Sports Centre in Douglas, Isle of Man.
Hellen Onsando Obiri is a Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner. She is the only woman to have won world titles in indoor track, outdoor track and cross country. Obiri is a two-time Olympic 5000 metres silver medallist from the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she also placed fourth over the 10,000 metres. She is a two-time world champion after winning the 5000 m in 2017 and again in 2019, when she set a new championship record. Obiri also took world bronze for the 1500 metres in 2013 and silver in the 10,000 m in 2022. She won the 3000 metres race at the 2012 World Indoor Championships, claimed silver in 2014, and placed fourth in 2018. She is the 2019 World Cross Country champion. Obiri triumphed in the 2023 Boston Marathon, her second marathon race. She places fifth in the half marathon on the world all-time list.
Nijel Carlos Amilfitano Amos is a Botswana middle-distance runner who competes in the 800 metres. He won the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics, which was Botswana's first ever Olympic medal. Amos claimed gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 All-Africa Games. At the African Championships in Athletics, he took golds in 2014, 2016 and 2018.
Taoufik Makhloufi is an Algerian athlete who specialises in middle-distance running. He became the 1500 metres Olympic champion at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. In 2016, Makhloufi took the silver medal in the 800m and 1500 m at the Summer Olympics in Rio, Brazil.
Rose Mary Almanza Blanco is a Cuban middle-distance runner who competes in the 800 metres. She represented Cuba at the Pan American Games in 2011, 2015, 2019 and won medals at the Ibero-American and Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics.She was world champion in the 4x400 meter relay in Silesia 2021
Abraham Kipchirchir Rotich is a Kenyan-born Bahraini middle-distance runner. Rotich won the 800 metres at the 2012 Diamond League meeting in Monaco.
The men's 800 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 12–15 August at the Olympic Stadium. Fifty-eight athletes from 39 nations competed. The event was won by David Rudisha of Kenya, the fourth man to successfully defend Olympic gold in the 800 metres. Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria took silver, the first medal for the nation in the 800 metres since 2000. The United States had an even longer medal-less streak broken, as Clayton Murphy's bronze was their first since 1992.
Sports in Botswana is diverse and reasonably well-developed. Though football, netball and athletics remain the most popular sports, numerous other sporting codes, including cricket, rugby, judo, swimming and tennis are active in the national sporting landscape. The Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC), together with the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) and Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture (MYSC) are responsible for the overall management of sport in the country. In addition, there over 30 National Sport Federations (NSFs) and three school sport federations
Peruth Chemutai is a Ugandan steeplechase runner. She won the gold medal in the women's 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, becoming the first Ugandan woman ever to win an Olympic medal.
Emmanuel Kipkurui Korir is a Kenyan middle-distance runner. He is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and 2022 World champion in the 800 metres. Korir won the silver medal in the event at the 2018 African Championships in Athletics.
