Rudisha lowers record

Kenyan David Rudisha has broken his own 800m world record just eight days after setting the previous mark.

The 21-year-old ran a time of one minute 41.01 seconds at a meeting in Rieti, Italy, on Sunday to better his own record by eight-hundredths of a second.

It is an amazing reversal of form for a runner who only made it to the semi-finals of the World Championships 12 months ago.

But he returned to the scene of his World Championship failure in Berlin and broke the previous record of 1:41.1 set by Wilson Kipketer which had stood for 13 years.

And a week later in Italy he bettered that effort after being led out by pace-setter Sammy Tangui in an opening lap of 48.20 seconds.

Rudisha broke away from the pack after that and streaked home to win by nearly two seconds ahead of compatriot Boaz Kiplagat Lalang and American Nick Symmonds.

Meanwhile, Jamaican Nesta Carter ran the equal fastest time over 100m this year at the same meeting, finishing in 9.78 seconds to level the mark set by American Tyson Gay.