Willis content with eighth
All things considered, Kiwi middle-distance legend Nick Willis couldn’t grumble too much with an eighth-place finish in the final of the 1500 metres at the athletics world championships.
Sure, he missed that elusive world champs medal for the sixth time, but everything is relative, and the Michigan-based Lower Hutt athlete had to face the reality that a challenging off-season, that included a sports hernia surgery he had kept under wraps until now, had left him short of the highend pace required to contend in London.
The two-time Olympic medallist (silver in Beijing in 2008 and bronze in Rio last year) simply couldn’t match the speed of the Kenyans on the final lap as he was left to work his way up a few spots from way too far back in the field over the final sprint. He finished in 3min 36.82sec.
Kenya’s Elija Manangoi, the fastest 1500m runner in the world this year, shaded compatriot Timothy Cheruiyot for the gold medal in the respectable time of 3:33.61 at London’s Olympic stadium. It was well shy of his season’s best of 3:28.80 and was his first major championship medal.
Cheruiyot finished in 3:33.099s while Norway’s Filip Ingebrigtsen pipped Spain’s Adel Machaal for the bronze in 3:34.53.
Willis was never in the hunt as the Kenyan trio, also including three-time world champion Asbel Kiprop who faded to finish ninth, led a six-man breakaway on the final lap. The 34-year-old Kiwi said afterwards he had to be content with a top-eight finish with all he had been through and just two and a-half months to prepare.
‘‘I’m surprisingly pleased – eighth in the world off 10 weeks’ training, I can’t really complain about that,’’ he said in London.
‘‘Those guys beat me by six seconds in Monaco, and three seconds today, so the improvement is happening, but obviously not in time.
‘‘I picked up some pretty bad shin splits at the end of March and tried to train through them. I got away with a couple of OK workouts ... [but] it was only in June that I got back to regular jogging and I didn’t start workouts till the last weekend in June.’’
The veteran Kiwi admitted his trademark finishing kick just wasn’t in the repertoire these championships and ‘‘the other guys were much too good today’’.
He also revealed why he had kept his hernia surgery quiet, after first picking up the problem a month before the Rio Olympics, and finally having the operation last October.
‘‘I haven’t told anyone publicly but six weeks after the Rio Olympics I had surgery on a sports hernia double release on my adductors,’’ he said.
‘‘I spun it that I needed to take three months off for a break as I really didn’t want meet directors to know I was going under the knife [because] I might miss out on appearance fees the following year.
‘‘That probably played a role in the injuries after that but now I’m fully healthy and still improving. I wasn’t up with the top guys but I’m positive about it.’’
The Kiwi had been bidding to win his first world championships medal.
At his five previous world championships, he made the semifinals in 2005, was 10th in 2007, 12th in 2011, a semifinalist in 2013 and was sixth in Beijing two years ago.
Willis would now turn his attentions to preparing for the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast next April where he would look to take on the challenge of the 5000m.
‘‘I’ll get a really good training base in over October, November and December,’’ he added.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Quentin Rew broke the national record in recording a fast-finishing 12th in the 50km walk in London in a time of 3hr 46min 29 sec.
Rew slashed the mark previously held by Craig Barrett of 3:48:05 set back in 2001.
The race was won by France’s Yohann Diniz in a championships record 3:33:12, with Japan’s Hirooki Arai taking the silver in 3:41:17, and compatriot Kai Kobayashi third in 3:41:19.
Rew admitted that technically it had not been his best race.
‘‘I was on warnings from almost all the judges and one more red card and I was out. Technically I was pretty borderline,’’ he said.
‘‘The warnings were coming pretty steadily throughout the race: one red card between 10k and 15k and the second red card on the last lap. Obviously with fatigue and trying to pick up places on the last lap and I was pushing it hard, but not too hard,’’ he added.
The 33-year-old from Wellington, attending his fourth world championships, was 29th at 5km and 27th at 10km in 45:50.
‘‘It was a strange race. Usually in races like this there is a fairly big group that are walking between 4:30 and 4:35 (per kilometre) but basically I was by myself the whole race. I had to just keep reminding myself to be patient because I knew that some would come back and the race for me was putting myself in a good position so when they did I could take advantage of that.’’
Rew improved to 25th at 20km, 22nd by 30km and by 45km had advanced to 18th. ’’The last 5km was when they started to come back and, even on the last 2km lap, I picked up three to four places.
‘‘The plan was to try and walk consistently. I didn’t go outrageously quickly in the last 5km, it was just that other people were going backwards, so it was taking advantage of that.’’