Nick Willis

Nick Willis earned a silver medal by running 1500m in Beijing in 2008. Nick Willis was born in Lower Hutt and attended Hutt Valley High School. Nick became the fastest New Zealand high school student to run over a mile, when he ran the distance in four minutes. Nick Willis running went to the United States to take up an athletic scholarship at the University in 2002, he came fourth in the 1500m at the world Junior track and field championships in Kingston. By 2004 he was starting to make a name for himself internationally in the 1500m and he reached the semifinals. At the 2005 world championships in Helsinki, Willis again reached the semifinals and New Zealand knew he was good. Nick Willis went a long way to answering those doubter at Melbourne Commonwealth games in 2006, Nick ran as fast as he could so he could win gold. By following in the footsteps of Lovelock, Willis’ winning time in Melbourne was 3 minutes.

He built on that performance by reaching the final of the world championships in 2007 in Osaka. In 2008 Nick Willis came 2nd and he used all his experience to progress to the final of the Olympic 1500m in Beijing. In the 1500m final Willis stayed at the back of the pack of runners for most of the races.