For the fifth time in his long career Nick Willis is into the Olympic 1500m semi-finals.
Willis ran his season’s best time of 3min 36.88s to finish seventh in his heat. With the first six going through automatically, Willis had to rely on grabbing one of the six fastest loser positions to advance, and he did so comfortably.
The 38-year-old ran his usual intelligent race, sticking to the pole line and trying to keep towards the front of the field. When the pace went on over the final 250 metres he struggled somewhat, but he did enough to ensure he reached the semis.
Willis, who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, these days, first ran at the Olympics at Athens in 2004, when he was a fresh-faced 21-year-old and impressed in reaching the semi-finals. In 2008 in Beijing he ran strongly up the home straight to finish third in the final and was subsequently upgraded to the silver medal when one runner was disqualified because of a drugs infraction. In 2002 in London, Willis was ninth in the final and in Rio in 2016, he ran intelligently to snatch the bronze medal.
Willis said he was a bit nervous when he saw how fast the first heat was today and thought he would have to run very fast to qualify. “But once I got to the start line I felt a lot of peace about me and thought, ‘Let’s see what happens’.”
He said it helped that he was near the front of the pack early on. “The pace was very moderate, which suited me. Then the Aussies wound it up in the middle laps and that suited me too, so I was fortunate to get towed to a good time that was fast enough to get through.”
With 47 starters spread over three heats, the fields were large and not surprisingly, in one heat two runners tripped and fell.
New Zealand’s other entrant in the 1500m was 20-year-old Sam Tanner, who finished ninth in his heat in 3min 43.22s and was some way off making the semis.
Tanner, with a best time of just over 3min 34s, obviously has more to offer than he showed today. He found himself boxed in at one point, then drifted to near the back of the pack and couldn’t muster the pace to go around the outside and challenge for a qualifying spot.
The New Zealander said he felt good initially, but that his had been a messy race with a lot of pushing and shoving. “Right on the bell one dude cut me off and I gave him a good nudge in the back. I sort of lost momentum and lost touch with the main group. By the time I got to the last 100 I was too far back.
“That was disappointing, but it’s been super-fun to be at my first Olympics and watch all these experienced guys in action.”