KEY POINTS:
New Zealand 1500m runner Nick Willis judges himself lucky to have made his first world championships final.
Willis looked to have missed the 1500m final when finishing out of the top five in a rough and tumble semifinal in Osaka, Japan, last night.
He was later elevated into the final field when one of the favourites - Frenchman Mehdi Baala - was disqualified for barging.
Willis was sixth in his semifinal, and was not one of the two fastest losers, so it looked as if he was on his way home.
All that changed when Baala was disqualified from fourth, after barging his way through the field on the home straight.
Willis said he knew he had no chance of getting through as a fastest loser, because his semifinal crawled around the track.
"It was pedestrian - there were nine guys in that race with personal bests of 3min 32sec or faster, so no one was willing to jeopardise (their chances by) leading, with that quality behind them," he told NewstalkZB.
He will line up in the final on Thursday morning (NZT), ending a streak of narrow misses at world events.
Two years ago Willis just missed a place in the world championships 1500m final at Helsinki, and in 2004 he was narrowly cut out of the Olympic Games final in Athens.
Commonwealth Games champion Willis clocked three minutes 43.34 seconds in his semifinal, more than 11sec slower than his New Zealand record.
Baala barged his way through down the home straight, knocking down two runners and in the process impeding the path to the finish line of Willis.
Protests by three countries saw Baala disqualified .
In the 10,000m, Michael Aish finished 18th and last in a time of 30min 34.16sec.
Of the 24 starters six failed to finish in the hot humid conditions.
Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele won his third world crown in the event, outsprinting teammate Sileshi Sihine by three seconds, in 27min 05.90sec.
- NZPA
