Willis goes the distance in enduring career
It was typical of Nick Willis that he swallowed his disappointment at missing a fourth Olympic Games 1500m final by setting set a new world record for a 38-year-old and then playing pick-up touch rugby with new friends.
‘‘What do you do after your final Olympic race?,’’ Willis tweeted. ‘‘Play 90 mins of touch rugby against some Irish lads at the Olympic Village field. Good times.’’
Other athletes may have moped, looked for excuses or drowned their sorrows, but Willis isn’t a glass halfempty guy. He left the Tokyo track as a record breaker, nevertheless, setting a new world mark for a 38-year-old of 3min 35.41sec, faster than his great Kiwi hero John Walker (3:37.43) and ex-world champion Bernard Lagat (3:36.36) at the same age.
Riding back in the athletes’ bus, long-time coach Ron Warhurst suggested Willis take up coaching before suggesting he ‘‘keep jogging’’ and see how he feels in the spring.
Willis later posted a video on Instagram, with a message, saying:
‘‘19 very nice years later’’ and ‘‘we ain’t done yet. What a ride. Thanks, Ronnie!’’
New Zealand team-mate Zane Robertson messaged Willis to encourage him to continue, saying he was ‘‘far from retired’’ after ‘‘3.35 in the semis after a 3.36’’. He urged the veteran to consider the Commonwealth Games next year and the world championships.
So the last race may not have been run for Nick Willis, although his Olympic career is over.
Right after his semifinal exit, he told Sky Sport he could depart with his ‘‘head held high, really proud of myself’’.
He expressed heartfelt thanks to wife and assistant coach Sienna and Warhurst for rekindling his Olympic desire despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the unwinnable battle with the toughest sporting opponent of all, old Father Time.
After waking yesterday – his first day as a former Olympian – Willis sent a social media post expressing his grateful ‘‘thanks to everyone for your support’’.
‘‘We’re proud of what we have been able to do with these 38-yearold legs. Ronnie [Warhurst] is a genius. At the beginning of the season he told me I could run 3.34. I thought he was crazy. But a 54.2 last lap shows a 3.34 was there in the right race.’’
Willis – a keen student of New Zealand track and field history – has been responsible for the writing of a long, new chapter, placing him in the annals alongside all-time greats Jack Lovelock, Peter Snell and John Walker.
His absence from the final should not be construed as failure. How many Olympic medallists – mindful of their legacy – would have had the fortitude to slap on spikes at 38 and compete with world’s top twentysomething milers?
Willis may not have the gold medal garnered by Lovelock, Snell and Walker, but a silver medal and a bronze – eight years apart – is nothing to be sneezed at.
Lovelock ran at Los Angeles in 1932 before his 1936 title at Munich. Snell blazed a golden trail at Rome (1960) and Tokyo (1964). The 1980 Moscow Games boycott limited Walker to gold in 1976 and a final appearance at Los Angeles in 1984 where he moved up a distance to finish eighth in the 5000m final.
Walker was considered a veteran in ’84 at 32, yet Willis – six years older – is still racing with the flat bellies over four laps.
Willis is 14 years older than Abel Kipsang, the Kenyan who set a new Olympic record in Thursday’s first semifinal, but he still exudes the same raw passion for running always evident since he trailed older brother Steve down to their local Hutt Valley track.
Many athletes today can talk about the ‘‘now’’ but have little feel for the past. As a boy, Willis made it his mission to discover all he could about New Zealand’s track trailblazers.
Willis has run faster 1500s than Lovelock, Snell and Walker, but he once admitted their achievements could not be compared because he enjoyed the privileges of a professional running era.
He has always paid homage to Snell, who died in 2019, as ‘‘the greatest of them all’’.
New Zealand’s punch-above-theweight 1500m past was why so many Kiwis at the Beijing Bird’s Nest stadium in 2008 were on their feet when Willis thundered up the straight to take a bronze medal (later upgraded to silver after a rival’s doping disgrace).
It fuelled hopes that a New Zealander might again be top of the podium in London in 2012 – 36 years after Walker’s triumph.
Willis went to London as New Zealand’s opening ceremony flag bearer, a signal of the status he enjoyed across the Olympic community.
‘‘My heroes Peter Snell and John Walker each carried the flag, so to
walk where they, and many other New Zealand legends have, is more than I could have ever dreamed of,’’ he said when selected for the honour.
Hopes were high when he finished third in a scorchingly fast semifinal at London but he faded to ninth in the final with his time more than six seconds slower than his personal best set just six weeks before.
Later, Willis would admit with typical candour that he maybe took his official duties too seriously. ‘‘When I was named the flagbearer, they talk about your character and your person and I’d never really prepared myself to handle that kind of public support so I lost a lot of sleep because I was devouring all those news articles that were written about me at the Games.’’
After London, many critics – this one included – speculated Willis might have to take a leaf from Walker’s book and move out a distance if he aspired to run at a fourth Olympic Games.
Fortunately, he took no notice and kept on the 1500m treadmill.
His belief in his own ability, and implacable faith in Warhurst – his coach since college days in Michigan – paid dividends.
Willis’ bronze medal at Rio in 2016 at 33 made him the oldest man to ascend an Olympic 1500m podium.
It beggars belief that he was still on the start-line five years on, 17 years after his green-as-grass debut as 21-year-old college student in Athens.
He spoke of going to Tokyo free of any expectation, with a determination to do his best.
Another Olympic record – the only athlete to contest four 1500m finals – may have eluded him, but Willis was still able to make his mark, reeling off off 3min 36.88sec – his fastest time in three years – in the heats before improving his season’s best to 3min 35.41 sec in the semifinals.
Again, it’s typical of Willis that he showed as much excitement for 1500m stablemate Sam Tanner’s first Olympic campaign as his own fifth trip to the Big Dance.