Athletics: Athlete to get run at cricket

By MURRAY McKINNON

Olympic middle-distance running hopeful Nick Willis will have only one race in New Zealand this summer - on the grass track of Eden Park during the interval in the one-day cricket international on Saturday.

Willis will compete over a mile against two promising Aucklanders - Paul Hamblyn and Tom Osborne - and three Australians.

Willis is back in the country for a short break before returning on Sunday to an athletics scholarship at the University of Michigan.

He last raced here, over cross-country in Wellington, 18 months ago and his last race in the US, in November, was also over cross-country.

"I broke 30 minutes for 10,000m cross-country and improved 10 places from the same race the previous year. So I was pretty pleased with that," Willis said.

"I have no idea how I will go in the mile. I have only just got back into full training after a three-week break suffering from a flu virus. But I have managed 70 miles a week in training, with long hill work."

The 20-year-old is looking forward to competing at home again.

During 2003 Willis reduced his 1500m time to 3m 36.41s in Zagreb and ran 3m 58.15s for the mile indoors.

Hamblyn, the national 1500m champion, has a best mile time of four minutes and Osborne, who is the New Zealand under-20 800m and 1500m champion, has run the mile in 4m 4s.

Victorian Mike Power, the 5000m representative at the Sydney Olympics, is the best of the Australians with a 3m 58s mile.

Clint Perrott, also from Victoria, and P.J. Bosch from South Australia complete the line-up.

Aucklander Simon Harvey, a former NZ 800m champion, will set the pace in the race, the winner of which will receive the John Davies Memorial Trophy, honouring NZ's Olympic Committee president, who died last July.