One of Kenya’s star middle distance runners, Mike Boit, arrived in Berlin with fire in his belly. Boit had had to miss the Olympic Games that year in Montreal because of a boycott by African nations in protest at the inclusion of apartheid-era South Africa. Boit had thus been unable to contest the 800m, won by Cuba’s Alberto Juantorena in a world record time of 1:43.50. At ISTAF on August 20 Boit wanted to show the 25,000 fans that he would have contested the race for gold all the way with the Cuban. He ran 1:43.47 to break the world record and prove to the world that Juantorena was not the undisputed ruler of the men’s 800m.
