KEY POINTS:
Nick Willis has finished second in the 1500m at the Adidas Track Classic in Carson, California, and is happy he gave American world champion Bernard Lagat a run for his money.
The New Zealander clocked 3m 35.75s - 0.61s behind Lagat, who was the silver medallist at the Athens Olympics.
Willis, the 2006 Commonwealth Games champion, won the event last year in 3m 35.85s.
Although disappointed with his time, the sensation of leading Lagat around the final bend was a pleasing one for Willis. "I ran aggressively behind Lagat and with 300m to go, I took the lead.
"I relaxed around the bend and kicked hard with 100m to go then he passed with 50m to go and I just held out," Willis said.
He conceded that in the past he might have shown some fear against the best runners in the world and given Lagat "a bit too much respect".
"[Now] if they are going to beat me, they are going to have to come around me."
Willis was disappointed with his time yesterday after running a good 800m, which he won in 1m 47.01s, at the Len Paddock Invitational athletics meeting in Michigan last weekend.
It was less than 1.5s outside his personal best, set four years ago.
He was hoping for a 3m 33s but the weather in California was about 34C and he had not done heat acclimatisation yet, coming out of Michigan which was about 12C.
He had been working on his speed and endurance and the target was to bring the two together for the Olympics, where he expected a tactical race with a moderate pace until the last 600m. "Whoever has the lead with 200m to go will win in Beijing so I need to run a strong back straight coming into the final bend."
He had two more races in the United States - in New York in two weeks, when he would run either the 800m or 1500m - and the mile at the Prefontaine meet in Oregon.
He was targeting 3m 30s or 3m 31s at the Rome Golden League meet on July 11, where he expected to test his finishing power on a fast track against a fast 1500m field.
- NZPA
