Nick Willis has one, shiny target in mind now: Olympic gold. The Beijing silver medallist smashed his New Zealand 1500m record yesterday - then celebrated by catching a high-speed ride in a police car to dinner with Prince Albert of Monaco.
"The traffic was horrific, so I saw a couple of police officers and thought, I'll see if I can drop the prince's name and get a ride," Willis told the Herald on Sunday. "They radioed ahead and next thing, my wife Sierra was sitting on my lap in the back of a police car on our way to the palace."
Sierra, father Richard and long-time American coach Ronnie Warhurst had earlier looked on as Willis clocked 3m 30.35s for third at the Diamond League meeting in the Mediterranean principality, his final outing before the London Olympics.
Willis took 1.44s off the mark he set at the same meeting last year. It's also an Oceania record, beating Australian Ryan Gregson's 3m 31.06s at this meet two years ago.
The race was won by Beijing Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop (Kenya) in 3m 28.88s - the world's fastest time this year - followed by fellow Kenyan Nixon Chepseba in 3m 29.77s.
