Athletics: Willis fades to ninth, but happy with Europe races

New Zealand's Nick Willis faded to ninth in the 1500m at the Super Grand Prix athletics meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, yesterday.

The reigning Commonwealth champion struggled to back up after establishing a New Zealand national record over the same distance in Paris on Sunday.

Willis remained at the back of the pack for much of yesterday's race before attempting to unleash a sprint with 400m remaining.

However, he could not sustain the spurt and finished with a time of 3m 34.80s, well behind the winner, Shadrack Korir, of Kenya, who clocked 3m 31.96s.

Kenya's Daniel Kipchirchir Komen was second in 3m 32.12s and American Bernard Lagat third in 3m 32.19s.

Willis beat three runners home in the 12-strong field.

Three days ago he set a national record of 3m 32.17s, 0.21s better than his previous mark.

Willis picked up three grand prix series points which will help towards him making the 1500m at the world athletics final in Stuttgart, Germany, in September.

"Ninth place is a little bit of a disappointment, but at the same time it was my third race in eight days and the other races went very well," he said.

Willis now heads back to his home in the United States for a wedding and a solid month of training.

He will return to Europe in mid-August with fresh legs in his bid to edge closer to the magical sub 3m 30s barrier in the 1500m.

- NZPA