A KENYAN teenager who has been running the 800m for only a few months is now an overwhelming favourite for Olympic gold.

Pamela Jelimo, the 18-year-old that no one knew about at the start of the year, is said to have run her first 800m at the African Championships Trials in Nairobi on April 19.

She has competed only eight times over the distance and has won on every occasion on the world stage.

At the Golden League in Paris last Friday, Jelimo broke her own world junior record in a time of 1:54.97. She shook off the field with her brilliant speed with just 300m to go with her nearest competitor 3.54 seconds behind her.

"It was a test before the Games and I'm very happy with my success," Jelimo said.

So where does this put Australian 800m runner Tamsyn Lewis? The world indoor champion's personal best is 1:59.21. She finished eighth in Paris in 2:00.94.

"I'm really tired," Lewis said. "It has been a long campaign over here and I'm ready to go home and do some warm weather training.

"My goal is to get a PB out at the Olympics. If I can do that, no matter where I finish, I will be happy. I know what I can run - it's certainly not 1:54 but I'm pretty sure if I can freshen up a bit, hopefully I can break that 1:59 and do my best."

Lewis will now base herself in Darwin before heading to Hong Kong for Australia's track and field team's camp.

Jelimo's latest win has her four from four starts in the Golden League Series and she remains in the hunt for the Golden League's jackpot of $1 million along with Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic.

The pair need to secure victories in the final two Golden League meetings to secure the money.

Before this, Jelimo's greatest claim to fame was winning the 2007 African junior title in the 400m.

Jelimo said she started to compete over 800m because her coach, Zaid Aziz, could see her superior sprinting ability.

"He saw that I could do much better than I had done in sprinting," Jelimo said. "He saw that I could use my sprinting to my advantage in the 800m."

In her first 800m in April she ran a respectable 2:01.02 performance at altitude in Nairobi. Soon after she ran 1:55.76, obliterating a 15-year-old world junior record and then 1:54.99 in Berlin. Only five women have ever run faster.

Her main rival is Russian 1500m specialist Yelena Soboleva who clocked 1:54.85 in the Russian Championships - the fastest time since 1997. If Soboleva chooses to run the 800m in Beijing it will set up an exciting Olympic battle.