Last gasp as veteran makes cut for Tokyo
New Zealand athletics veteran Nick Willis will compete in a record fifth Olympics after making the cut by the slimmest possible margin.
The 38-year-old, who won silver and bronze at the 2008 Beijing and
2016 Rio Games, qualified as the lowest-ranked competitor in the
1500m after two higher-ranking runners opted to contest different distances in Tokyo.
Despite being previously named in the New Zealand Olympic team, only the fastest 45 runners in his event in the world are able to take part in Tokyo, and Willis, before this week, was ranked 47th and not fast enough to automatically qualify. However, with help from those abstaining competitors, Willis will now become the first male New Zealand track and field athlete to compete in five Olympics.
Two-time Olympic champion Dame Valerie Adams will also be attending her fifth Games, competing in the shot put.
This year is becoming one of records for Willis, after he also reached the remarkable milestone of running a sub-fourminute mile for the 19th year in a row in January.
The previous record-holder was Kiwi legend John Walker, the first athlete to break 3m 50s for the mile and first to run 100 sub-four-minute miles.
“It’s a little bit of an obscure record, I suppose — someone made me aware of it a few years ago,” Willis told the Herald at the time. “It’s been on my radar, a fun thing to aim for, to keep that streak going.”
Joining Willis in the 1500m in Tokyo will be 20-year-old Sam Tanner, who qualified automatically with a personal best of 3m 34.72s in New York in February 2020, breaking the New Zealand indoor record held by Willis.