Willis primed for another crack at glory
Nick Willis understands too well he’s running out of moments like today’s in the final of the Olympic 1500 metres in Rio.
The 33-year-old Kiwi athletics great has produced two composed, well-timed and savvy runs to make it through to his third straight Olympic final (noon today, NZT) in the blue riband event on the track.
At this stage of his career, ticking off his fourth Games, that’s a feat that should be celebrated in its own right.
But Willis is locked in for these Olympics, and there is a singlemindedness, focus and intent about him that indicates he’s well aware this might well be his last chance to do something special at this level.
He has avoided almost all media chat through the heats and semifinals, stopping only briefly for one comment to broadcasters after his successful qualification for the final. For a man who always enjoys a chat, it’s been a significant approach. The blinkers have been well and truly affixed.
The Michigan-based pride of the Lower Hutt knows too well what can be achieved in the heat of an Olympic final. And he knows equally well that it can go wrong.
Of course, most memorably, he came away with a silver medal from his first Olympic 1500m final, in Beijing in 2008 when he ran the race of his life to come home third, and eventually be promoted a spot when drug-testing results came in.
Four years ago in London, it did not go quite so well as he faded to ninth in a final that just did not go his way − a result that has clearly fuelled him to go another Olympic cycle in the 1500 at a time when a lot of athletes go up a distance.
He is one of only two 30-somethings in the final − Canadian I was very lucky over the last 50 to get through. But I feel good, and I’ll see you in the final. Nathan Brannen, also 33, is the other − and if he repeated his Beijing heroics he would be the oldest male Olympic 1500m medallist of all time (Great Britain’s Albert Hill was 31 when he won the 1920 title in Antwerp, so far the only man to do so in his 30s).
It’s been so far, so good for Willis in Rio as he’s rattled off two brilliant finishes to progress with what has looked a minimum of effort.
‘‘I was very lucky over the last 50 to get through. But I feel good, and I’ll see you in the final,’’ he said after his semifinal.
If that sounds to you like a man on a mission, you’re right.