Peaking at the right time crucial for London bound athletes

The races between the trials and the Olympics usually dictate the form-chart in many of the events and usually someone’s chances for gold. Therefore this past Friday’s Samsung Diamond League event in Paris was a good indicator of a number of athletes ’fitness levels based on some stirring performances in the run up to the London Olympics later this month.

The event’s biggest news was the much hyped world record attempt by David Rudisha in the 800 meters. Rudisha has been peerless this season and his spectacular times indicated that he was ready to challenge this own world record. But it was not to be this time in Paris, having been let down slightly by this pacemaker. Still, he produced a new world leader just a half second away from the record.

So good was his effort that it really wasn’t a race, rather a battle for second for the rest of the field trailing a whopping four seconds back!

As much as it would have been desirable to go to the Olympics with the World record in the bag, just missing it by a few steps will keep him hungry for it going forward and he can now focus on the important business of winning the Olympics title and then running faster once that’s done.

Nonetheless, Rudisha is a clear favorite for gold in London and like the defending 3000 meter steeplechase champion Brimin Kipruto, peaking when it matters most.

Despite 2012 world leader Paul Kipsiele Koech getting his third Diamond League win of the season in the 3000m steeplechase, that result didn’t really count for much as he isn’t going to the Olympics due to his 7^th place showing at the Trials.

Kipruto, who finished second to Koech, is the guy to look for come the Olympics. He's proven himself at the highest level before, having been World Champion in 2007 and the Olympics in 2008 and has improved by about 25 seconds since May.

Ensuring you peak at the right time in athletics is an art form. You rely on your coach and your training programme, that it's been planned out and that you execute it in the way that you intended.

In an Olympic year there are two aspects to that, depending on what sort of athlete you are.

A lot of athletes have this 'double peak', first for the trial and then for the main event. So you have to turn up to the trial in good shape. The difficulty is peaking for the trial, and then having to peak again five weeks later for your Olympics.

Some people can hold onto their top form for four or five weeks, some people have it come and go very quickly.

What you hope for at the trials and the Games is that psychologically you hit a peak and that extra sense of occasion takes you up onto another level which you physically haven't had to produce up to that point. That's what the great athletes like Rudisha and Kipruto can do.

These few Diamond League events coming up are the perfect races to fine-tune fitness levels in readiness for the Olympics. Look out for top Kenyan athletes as they compete in the next leg of the Samsung Diamond League event at the Aviva London Grand Prix next week televised on Zuku Sports.