The Olympic 800m final might have featured the most impressive performance of the 2012 London Olympics. If not that, it definitely featured the most impressive competition of the 2012 London Olympics. That’s not something you would expect if you just watch this blurry YouTube video that might as well be a bunch of cowboys in dungarees and boots trying to catch a runaway horse. From Sports Illustrated:

The race itself, the Olympic final, what more is there to say? The race is best told, perhaps, in 16 letters: WR, NR, PB, PB, PB, NR, SB, PB.

Just to clarify – World Record, National Record, Personal Best, Personal Best, Personal Best, National Record, Season Best, Personal Best. In one race. Every man involve has the right to stand up proud of his accomplishment in this race. There isn’t a person involved who has to go home thinking, “I could have done better.” Even the guy who finished dead last. Of course, the man who finished first was Kenya’s David Rudisha.

The race was magic, and the magic was Rudisha. These days, world records in any event above 400 meters are set only with pacesetters. Just a month ago, Rudisha said that a pacesetter would be needed to set a new record. Instead, he became the pacesetter for the field, in which every man behind him but one ran a personal best — and that one ran a season’s best — and two set national records. In the slipstream of greatness, bizarre things happen.

Rudisha finished the race in 1.40.91 seconds. 1.40.91 seconds to run 800 meters. That’s just over 12.5 seconds per 100 meters. 12.5 seconds in the 100 meters is really fast. Rudisha isn’t going to beat Usain Bolt in a sprint, but he would definitely finish his cool down jog and hit the shower first. Then again, so would everyone else involved in this race.