Amos dares a nation to dream
Mqondisi Dube | Friday July 16, 2021 19:23
“Amos is back and is back with a bang,” screamed the commentator as the Marobela-born 800-metre star bore down the finish line at the Monaco Diamond League meet last Thursday night. Amos’ name had hardly featured in the commentators’ lips throughout the nearly two-minute race. But across the finish line, with his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath, Amos had unwittingly sent shivers down his rivals’ spines with Tokyo looming on the horizon.
Amos does not have much mileage on the track this year as he has been sidelined through an injury and undergoing rehabilitation in his New York base in the United States. Last Thursday, Amos returned to form with a well-timed run. Typically, he let a couple of runners set the pace while he chose to remain sandwiched between a cluster of bodies.
It was at the final bend where the former Diamond League winner posed uncomfortable questions to his opponents.
With the foot on the pedal, Amos squeezed the life out of his two remaining challengers, Emmanuel Korir and Marco Arop who failed to craft a response on the home straight. Instead, they were forced to escort Amos to his glorious moment as he crossed the line in 1:42:91 seconds, the world’s leading time this year. The blue, black and white nation united exploded in celebration, nodding in unison that ‘Amos is back’. The Diamond League race in Monaco produced two of the world’s leading times this year, as Kenyan Korir crossed the line in 1:43:04. Amos bettered this year’s best mark of 1:43:17, which was set by American, Clayton Murphy on June 21. The top 10 of this year’s leading times in the 800m is dominated by Kenyans, with four.
Amos is no stranger to fast and furious races after playing a significant role in the record-breaking run at the 2012 London Olympics. It remains the fastest in history, where Amos won the country’s first ever Olympic Games medal with his best time of 1:41.73 while fierce rival, David Rudisha set a new world mark of 1:40.91.
Both Amos and Rudisha have been missing in action lately, with the Kenyan ruled out of the Olympic Games, and a glorious athletics career at sunset. This has seen the emergence of a group of young lions, like Oliver Dustin, but as the 800m runners arrive in Tokyo, Amos has demonstrated he is ready to defang pretenders to the throne.
His sub 1:43 run will undoubtedly move him ahead of the pack to be installed as the favourite to grab gold in Tokyo. The sparkling run in Monaco has dared a nation to dream of a first ever Olympics gold.
Top five 800m world-leading
times in 2021
1. Nijel Amos (Botswana) 1:42.91
2. Emmanuel Korir (Kenya) 1:43.04
3. Clayton Murphy (US) 1:43.17
4. Marco Arop (Canada) 1:43.26
5. Jesus Lopez (Mexico) 1:43:44