Athletics: Confident Willis in final

Nick Willis makes his move in the world championships 1500m semifinal in Beijing. Photo / AP

Nick Willis will tonight return to the scene of one of his biggest accomplishments as he chases a medal in tonight's final of the 1500m final at the world championships in Beijing.

The 32-year-old won silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (he initially finished third but was upgraded after Rashid Ramzi was stripped of gold due to a positive drugs test) and has displayed the sort of form this week that will have him optimistic.

His best finish at a world championships is 10th in 2007 and tonight's final will be his third in five world championships appearances. He pulled out of the 5000m earlier in the week to concentrate on his preferred 1500m and broke his own New Zealand 1500m record at the Monaco Diamond League meet six weeks ago with a time of 3m 29.66s.

Willis finished second in his semifinal early yesterday, showing good speed on the final bend and into the tape to finish behind 2008 Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop of Kenya in 3m 43.57s. He easily qualified as one of the first five to finish in his semifinal and completed the final 400m in just over 50 seconds.

Willis hasn't hung around to chat this week and cantered past journalists afterwards. The field is one of the strongest in 1500m history with the last two Olympic champions (Kiprop and Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria) and a number who have beaten 3m 30s.

Kiprop ran 3m 26.69s in Monaco last month, the fastest 1500m in 14 years, and he is the third quickest individual over the distance.

Willis has vowed to be more aggressive than normal and it will be a good test less than a year out from the Rio Olympics.

Fellow Kiwi Julian Matthews found the pace too hot in the second semifinal, finishing in 11th in 3m 40.45s - outside his personal best from Belgium in July of 3m 37.37s - and 16th overall.

"It's disappointing it ended that way but it has been a good championship for me and I've learned a lot from it," he said. "It would have been nice to have been a bit more competitive there at the end.

"I did everything I could. I just didn't have it and when you don't have it, you don't have it. It's a long last lap when you're off the back."

Matthews will have 10 days off to prepare for his last race in Italy, where he hopes to qualify for next year's Olympics.

Quentin Rew finished 10th in a personal best time of 3h 48m 48s in the gruelling 50km walk yesterday, cutting 94 seconds off his previous best and beating Olympic qualification by more than a minute. Rew kept to his own pace throughout, even though he picked up two red cards early in the race (athletes are eliminated after receiving three warnings for not having one foot in contact with the road).