New Zealand Olympic hope Nick Willis finished eighth in the 1500m in Zurich over the weekend as Kenyan Bernard Lagat powered home in a near world record time.
Willis' time of 3m 34.53s was outside the 3m 32.68s he ran in Rome in July to qualify for the Olympics, but on its own would still have been good enough to qualify him for Athens.
After pacemakers set a blistering world record pace, Lagat and world record holder Hicham El Guerrouj, of Morocco, drew away from the pack.
El Guerrouj led until 30m to run when Lagat sprinted past to finish in 3m 27.40s with El Guerrouj just back in 3m 27.64s.
Lagat's time was the fastest in the world this year, but outside El Guerrouj's world record time of 3m 26.00s set in 1998 in Rome.
Athletics: Willis down field
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