Athletics: Willis clocks fast 800m

1.00pm

Nick Willis continues to challenge the greats of New Zealand middle distance running, clocking a world-class 800m time in Belgium this morning (NZ time).

Willis, 21, who will contest the 1500m at this month's Athens Olympic Games, won a B-grade final in one minute 45.54 seconds.

It was is about 2sec quicker than his personal best, and just over a second outside the national record of 1min 44.3sec set by the legendary Peter Snell at Christchurch in 1962.

The Wellington runner's time at the KBC night of athletics at Heusden-Zolder would have seen him sixth in the A final, won by Canadian 800m specialist Gary Reed in 1min 44.92sec.

It has Willis ranked just outside the top 30 in the world this year and was under the Olympic Games A qualifying time.

New Zealand's Jason Stewart has been named to contest the 800m at Athens, his best time 1min 46.28 placing him under the B-grade qualifying mark.

Willis last month ran 3min 32.68sec in a top 1500m field at Rome, a time that saw him ranked behind only Walker on historical New Zealand rankings.

Willis was scheduled to run one more 1500m event before the Games, in Zurich on Friday.

- NZPA