KEY POINTS:
Runner Nick Willis believes his top finish in a mile race yesterday will mark a turning point.
Willis finished second in a personal best time at the Prefontaine Classic meeting in Oregon, beating the world No 1-ranked 1500m runner Daniel Kipchirchir Komen.
The 25-year-old's time of 3min 50.66sec was more than two seconds better than his previous best, set when he beat Australian Craig Mottram at Wanganui as a warm-up to his triumphant 2006 Commonwealth Games 1500m campaign.
Just nine weeks out from the Beijing Olympics, yesterday's race served as a great confidence boost.
"I've been running on the pro circuit for three years and a lot of the time it's easy to go through the list of starters and count those I'm expected to be behind - I've been stuck being the best of the rest," he said yesterday.
"Now I know I've got a few scalps in a legitimate race, that will give me a step-up to where I believe I should be."
His brother and co-coach, Steve, said it was a perfect opportunity for Willis to sharpen his racing ability.
"It was good to see him running prominently where he didn't feel like he had to hold on - he was running for the win," said Steve Willis.
In yesterday's race, he made his move with 250m to go, rounding Komen, of Kenya, and other leading Olympic contenders including Shedrack Kibet Korir, of Kenya, Bahrain's Belal Mansoor Ali, and American favourite Alan Webb.
Korir, ranked No 3 in the world, came back at Willis with about 30m to go and pipped him on the line. Willis' time edged him closer to John Walker's former world record of 3min 49.08sec, which is the national record.
His next race is in Rome on July 11 when he will eye his New Zealand 1500m record of 3min 32.17sec.
* In other events at the meeting, Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele turned on a virtuoso performance with the world's fourth fastest 10,000m, clocking 26min 25.97s. Chinese 110m hurdle Olympic gold medallist Liu Xiang was not so impressive, disqualified for a false start in a race won by American Anwar Moore in 13.09sec.
