KEY POINTS:
Nick Willis' dream of making the final of a 1500m at a major athletic championship has come true at the worlds.
After one of the top runners, Mehdi Baala of France, barged his way through at the end of Willis' heat, knocking runners and impeding the New Zealander's progress, his subsequent disqualification promoted Willis from sixth to fifth and into the final.
"Coming into the home straight and just as I hit my full stride, the Ethiopian runner [Mekonnen Gebremehdin] got knocked by Baala and then he knocked me and so I lost my stride."
Willis said it had been a long road in the past few years.
"This is my one goal - to make a major championship final, not just to be there but to be in there, to have a shot at really competing."
The 24-year-old said his whole life had been spent looking at past finals and imagining what approach would have won him a medal.
"But you can't do that from the grandstands and now I have my opportunity and it's time to seize the moment, refocus, get my muscles all ready and recovered. And set a plan which I think will help me with the best opportunity for a high position."
Willis said he thought he had a shot at getting a top-three placing in the heats.
The gold medallist at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games said the pace would pick up in the final early tomorrow (New Zealand time) with 800m to go.
"So if I get in the same position again, then as the pace quickens they won't be able to go back around, then I'll be in a nice fourth or fifth position and try to hold that and then give it everything in the last 200m."
Willis believes that it will be a tactical race, with no front-runners in the field.
Meanwhile, New Zealand sprinter James Dolphin turned in a season's best to reach the 200m quarter-finals.
The 24-year-old finished sixth in his heat in 20.65s - 0.05s outside his lifetime best, set in November 2005 - to seal a berth as one of eight fastest losers.
World 100m champion Tyson Gay, of the United States, took the race in 20.46s. Seven of the nine in the heat advanced to the next round.
Just 36 hours after winning 100m gold, Gay said he was pushed all the way in the 200m and felt "sluggish".
- additional reporting: NZPA
