Botswana’s Nijel Amos (left) gets up to beat Kenya’s David Rudisha in the men’s 800m final.

Nijel Amos sprung one of the biggest surprises of the Commonwealth Games by shocking David Rudisha to take 800 metres gold at Hampden Park yesterday.

The 20-year-old from Botswana, who took Olympic silver behind Rudisha at London 2012, left in the wake of the Kenyan’s unforgettable world record run, turned the tables in Glasgow by chasing him down on the home straight.

Amos raced past as Rudisha tied up, coming home in one minute 45.18 seconds, the favourite taking silver in 1min 45.48secs.

Amos looked boxed in behind the Kenyans with 100m to go, but worked himself free and had enough strength to chase a tiring Rudisha down.

The Olympic champion missed last season with a knee injury and is still clearly working his way back to full fitness.

In London he hit the front and ran away from the field, his awesome display hailed by Sebastian Coe as his personal highlight of those Games.

In Glasgow, he had nothing left at the end.

Rudisha, who was cheered to the rafters when introduced to the Hampden crowd, told BBC Sport: “It was really awesome when we started, all the cheers were fantastic.

“The race was good, but the last 100m I found a little bit difficult, all because of not good preparation this year.

“The last 100m is not really good. He’s a tough competitor and we’ve been racing together and I know he’s quite a tough guy.

“We ran a tactical race, I think he was good tonight.”

Amos paid tribute to his rival, saying: “This gentleman will always be the hero of 800m.”

Scotland’s Guy Learmonth and England’s Michael Rimmer finished sixth and seventh respectively.

Medals table