Willis wins 1500m bronze (+pics)

ANDREW MEARES/Fairfax Media

ANDREW MEARES/Fairfax Media

ANDREW MEARES/Fairfax Media

ANDREW MEARES/Fairfax Media

ANDREW MEARES/Fairfax Media

KENT BLECHYNDEN/Fairfax Media

Relevant offers

This was no ordinary bronze medal. This was a skinny white kid from the Lower Hutt showing he can mix it with the Africans.

This was a Kiwi adding to the country's folklore of Olympic 1500m finals.

This was Nick Willis producing what may well go down as the standout memory of the New Zealand Games programme.

And that's with all due respect to gold medalists Valerie Vili and Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell. They remain the great achievers of these Olympics, no doubt.

But what we saw from Willis at the Bird's Nest on the last event of the Tuesday night progamme (early this morning NZ time) shortly before the witching hour was a performance that will live long in the memory.

It was John Walker, Peter Snell and Jack Lovelock all rolled into this 1.83m, 69kg streak of athletic talent. It was unexpected. It was exhilarating. And it was joyous. He even blew himself away, taking the world's longest lap of honour afterwards to drink in every clap of applause, every pat on the back and to seemingly speak to every Kiwi in the stadium. He couldn't get enough of this Olympic experience of his.

For those of us who were brought up on a steady diet of Walker, Dixon and Quax, and whose parents used to regale them with tales of that big-chested warrior named Snell, this was something special. A Kiwi in an Olympic 1500m final. A Kiwi medalling. Hands up if you thought those days had passed?
Not with this kid on the scene.

It was a brilliantly executed race from Willis, too. As this field of lethal 1500 men entered the back straight for the final time the medal hopefuls began to make their moves. They went. But not the Kiwi kid. He knew the race he wanted to run, and it didn't involve going just yet. So he kept in touch, but also kept something in reserve.
 
He was sixth rounding the bend, but he had his lane. And something in the tank. He didn't hit Mahe Drysdale's "Great Wall of China". He had a finish. So as Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi strode to gold, with Kenya's Asbel Kipruto Kiprop hard on his heels, there was the famous black singlet coming through to hold off fast-finishing Frenchman Mehdi Baala for bronze. Willis saw the Frenchman coming on the big screen and said to himself one word. "No!"

"I eked out that last inch to dip him on the line. That would have been absolutely devastating to come that close, then just miss out. I thought  I had it with 60 to go, then with 20 to go I saw him coming. He screamed in despair when he realised he didn't get it."

The Kiwi had pipped him by 0.05s, his time of 3min 34.16s (two seconds off his PB, but who cares?) good enough. Thank God.
 
"I was absolutely stuffed," said Willis who collapsed spent on the Bird's Nest track at race's end. The humidity, he said, had added to the degree of difficulty. Then the emotions hit him even harder.

"It really didn't hit me till I started the victory lap and got to the back straight and I really couldn't hold it back any more and broke down in tears."

The Ann Arbor-based New Zealander said he's always believed he could medal. So much so it had been mentioned so many times over the last four years "that you start to believe it yourself. I truly did believe it on the start line that it was there for the taking."

Not since 1984 had New Zealand had an athlete in a men's 1500m final. Not since John Walker's gold in 1976 had we secured a medal. Willis strides in the Walker footsteps no doubt, as much as Walker did so in Snell's, and Snell in Lovelock's. The torch has been passed.

Later, after he'd touched nearly every Kiwi hand in the stadium, and breathed in this moment for all it was worth, and then some, Willis told us what his Kiwi heritage meant to him as a 1500m runner. There was no doubt it fuelled the desire in him to work so hard to achieve this special moment.

"This is just absolutely huge for New Zealand and for athletics in general," said the devout Christian.

"We have such a rich tradition, Jack Lovelock, John Walker, Peter Snell, three Olympic gold medalists and world record-holders. I was not able to get the gold, but with the standard of competition and spread that this sport has reached worldwide now, to get a bronze medal to me means just as much."

Willis then spoke about being almost a missionary as he represented the "western" world against the might of the African distance runner. The man didn't just win a medal, he gave half the world hope.

"I feel sometimes like I'm representing a huge range of track and field fans," he said. "So it's just an honour to be able to carry that mantle and reach the medal podium.

"I know there's going to be millions of people around the world to whom this means a lot, and give all young kids hope that someone from a town like Lower Hutt of 100,000 people where track and field is not big - I come from a high school of 2000 kids and one of only two people who ran track - and to come from that and get a chance to be on the medal podium really means a huge amount."

That it does. Today New Zealanders should soak it up. It's been a long time returning, but it sure is a great feeling.

- © Fairfax NZ News

Newest First

Oldest First

Olivia Ritchie   #67   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

Inspiring race!!!

Totally amazing!!!

Well done, you've done us proud!!

tim   #66   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

great achievement! No offence to the other medals but this is truly a global event and the biggest event in an qlympic itenerary. It is worth 10 golds in comparison to the swindel twins.

sophie   #65   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

hay great run bro im doing my olypian study on you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sophie   #64   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

nice run nick you did great i hope i can be like you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love running!!!!!!!!!!!

sopfie   #63   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

yeah i agree

jackielyn   #62   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

ohhh that's great news,soooooo keep it up!!!!!!!!

Julia   #61   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

AWESOME! i knew we'd hear a lot from this lad after the commonwealth games in '06 (anyone still smiling to themselves remembering Nick's extraordinary run that night? ;) ) but tbh him finishing third in the olympics... way more than i'd expected! :) well done nick, you did us really proud there in beijing!!

(this coming from an austrian/kiwi)

Jay T   #60   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

Shut the hell up with your "he can carry the flag all he wants". He's raising his fingers up like he's number one. Take it easy mate, you finished third.

A world-beater is someone who gets the gold.

You people jumping up and down over this, and don't get me wrong he did great, are the same people who were calling the poms w*****s for doing a lap of honour after losing to the ABs a few years back. Hypocrites.

Teddy Fasavala   #59   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

good running

LLAMA!

camille   #58   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

Hello from Canada! As we sat and watched your countryman round the bend, we thought 'oh wow--who's the white guy? He's hauling!! This from a crowd of Olympic loving Canucks who just love an outstanding performance.

Yeah, Usain has been brilliant (our Italian neighbours are trying to claim some kind of distant relation!!) but way to go Nick Willis!!

You Kiwis have heart--lots of it. Congratulations on your great win!!

Camille, Martin, Jessica, Winston and everyone else working the late shifts at The Ex. :0)

Ad Feedback