Rudisha, who twice broke the world record last season, and Kaki, who retained his world indoor title last year, produced one of the greatest 800m races since the days of Steve Ovett and Seb Coe at last season's Samsung Diamond League meeting in Oslo.

On that occasion, the Kenyan finished a stride ahead in 1min 42.06sec which broke the stadium record Coe had set as a world record 31 years earlier, and Kaki improved his national record to 1:42.23.

With both men still to make an impact in the World Championships, their first meeting of the season in London will be an exacting warm-up for this year's version of the event in Daegu, South Korea from August 27- September 4.


The 800m field will also include Britain's European silver medallist Michael Rimmer, Commonwealth champion Boaz Lalang and former European champion Bram Som.

Rudisha beat the world record his former compatriot Wilson Kipketer set in 1997 by 0.02sec when he ran 1min 41.09sec in Berlin on August 22 last year, and within a week he had lowered it to 1:41.01 at the Rieti meeting.

The Kenyan has not been beaten over 800m since the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, 22 races, and two years, ago.

Rudisha, who won his only other Diamond League race this season in Lausanne last month, said: "I'm looking forward to competing in London, I've already competed in one Samsung Diamond League event and it will be good to race in another.

"I know that the field in London will be really strong and will result in a good race.

"It's important to be having these high quality races ahead of the World Championships so it's a great opportunity for me."

The event will provide Rudisha with the opportunity to take aim at the 15-year-old track record of 1:43.25 set by former Olympic champion Vebjørn Rodal.

Despite Rudisha narrowly coming out on top on both of his last races with Kaki, the man from Sudan leads 5-3 in their career meetings.


Kaki said: "It will be great to race against David [Rudisha].

"We always have fantastic races and I'm sure this one will be no different.

"He's never competed in the UK before so I think he'll find it very exciting as there's always a great atmosphere wherever you go.

"He really is the man to beat at the moment, but I've had some successes against him in the past so I know how to beat him.

"I love competing in the UK.

"I've had great success here in the past and I in fact won this event last year."

The event will be shown live on BBC2 and BBC HD.

For tickets or more information please click here or phone 08000 556 056.

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