KEY POINTS:
It's among New Zealand's great sporting lineages - Jack Lovelock, Peter Snell and John Walker, 1500m Olympic champions. Can Nick Willis enhance the legacy in Beijing in 2008?
His gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in March ended a 44-year drought since Snell triumphed at Perth in 1962. And to continue the link, the only other New Zealand gold in the event was by Lovelock in London in 1934 at the Empire Games.
Willis lined up as a decent chance. His main rival was Australian Craig Mottram. Willis had a patchy leadup, with illness after arriving in Melbourne. With 700m to run, Mottram tripped and fell. Whether he would have caught Willis will never be known, but the former University of Michigan runner looked in control.
His time was a slow 3m 38.49s, way off his personal best 3m 32.38s. But the only thing that mattered was he got across the line first, less than a second ahead of his Canadian training partner Nate Bannen.
The 22-year-old, who did his Bible studies twice a day at the Games village, was confident before the start.
He went to the front at the bell lap and held off his pursuers, who were chasing the minor medals from a long way out.
Willis said he had grown up in Lower Hutt. He'd watched running videos, noticing how the great runners won the races that really matter and planned the Games final to suit his own strengths.
"The perfect race would have been running about two or three seconds faster on that last lap," he said.
Snell offered encouragement. "He's won a major championship. That's good, he's on his way." For New Zealand's best middle distance runner since Walker, Beijing beckons.
