Kiwi runner Nick Willis hopes to add to an already impressive trophy cabinet at a Christchurch athletics meeting this week, but his biggest prize is in the mail.

The Olympic and Commonwealth Games medallist is in Christchurch for an international track and field event at Queen Elizabeth II Park on Thursday.

Willis said he was excited to be competing in a Christchurch event.

"It's great to have international-quality races back in New Zealand," he said. "Once I got to this level, I really wanted the opportunity to do it in front of my home fans."

Willis did not compete in the Christchurch event last year after a hip injury ruled him out of most of the 2009 season.

His recovery was boosted by news that his 2008 1500-metres Olympic bronze medal was being upgraded to silver after Beijing winner Rashid Ramzi failed a drugs test.

Willis said the silver medal was "in the mail as we speak".

Click here to read the full article on Stuff.co.nz

The event’s star is undoubtedly Olympic 1500m silver medallist Nick Willis, who has publicly stated his goal in Delhi this year is to not only defend his Commonwealth 1500m crown, but to emulate the legendary Peter Snell and add the 800m crown as well.  [Snell won the imperial equivalents, the half-mile and mile, at the Empire Games in Perth in 1962].

Aiming to throw a spanner in the works at Willis’ home track meet will be top Australians Jeff Riseley and Jeremy Roff, who unexpectedly claimed the scalps of Willis and Kenya’s Olympic gold medallist Asbel Kiprop in the 1500m race at the Melbourne Grand Prix 10 days ago.  Willis said when he flew into Christchurch today “That was a bit of a shock – I’ll definitely be out for some revenge on Thursday”. With Irish 800-1500 champion David Campbell, 4-times Australian champion Nick Bromley, and Canadian Geoff Harris also in the field, there are six athletes with personal bests of 1min47sec or faster – the strongest field since Auckland 1990, when British middle distance legend Sebastian Coe, in the twilight of his career, finished 6^th in 1min47.24s. 

Meet Director Craig Motley said “This is a phenomenal field to come together for a meet of this scale, and we are expecting to see some pretty fast times”.  Willis and Riseley in particular should be very evenly matched – their personal bests are just 6/100ths of a second different from each other, and both are just over a second outside Peter Snell’s New Zealand record, set when he smashed the world record at Lancaster Park in 1962. 

Also competing in the discus event at the meet will be former world champion and twice Commonwealth champion Beatrice Faumuina, against the current world champion Dani Samuels.

Tickets are on sale at QEII Stadium now, and at the gate on the night. Adults are $12, children 12 & under $6, and under-5's are free.  Premium allocated Gold Seating is $20.  The international section of the programme starts at 6.30pm - go to www.internationaltrackmeet.co.nz for more details.

Following this interview with Universal Sports in the USA last week it has been incorrectly reported across numerous media sources in New Zealand that Nick Willis had decided to withdraw his intention to defend his 1500m title at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi later this year.
 
Speaking with Carl Jackson of NZRun.com Nick said he believed the confusion may have come from difficulty with his accent during the USA based interview with UniversalSports.com  

Universal Sports (formerly WCSN) is providing the delayed coverage in the USA of the Reebok Boston Indoor Games, which Willis competed in over the weekend, and posted the interview  on their website on the fifth of February. The interview was conducted following the general press conference for the Boston event and covered Nick's return from injury, thoughts on his soon to be Silver Olympic medal and of course, his intentions for New Delhi.

At this time Nick still intends to defend his 1500m title at the Commonwealth Games as well as adding the 800m to his schedule.

The only remaining link we could find to the old 800m story:
Sportal.co.nz

World-ranked triathlete Kris Gemmell is switching codes to race Olympic medallist Nick Willis in Wellington on Friday night.

Gemmell, the world No 8, completes a classy field vying for the national 3000m championship title at the Capital Classic, including Willis, former national titleholder Kim Horgath, and Wellington contenders Rees Buck and Hamish Carson.

Gemmell said the chance to race Willis was too good to miss.

"I'd never pass up an opportunity to learn from someone like Nick," he said.

"It might come to a race five months down the line with 3km to go, and I might be able to call on this learning experience."

Click here to read the full article on Stuff.co.nz

With two Commonwealth Games qualifying throws in the can, Auckland's Beatrice Faumuina is primed for a rare Wellington appearance tomorrow night.

Faumuina leads the qualifying race for October's New Delhi Commonwealth Games as she moves to silence her doubters.

Last month Faumuina threw a season-best of 59.27 metres at Mt Smart Stadium. Another games qualifying throw of 56.09m came at North Shore Stadium in early December, eclipsing the women's mark of 56m set by Athletics NZ selectors.

"My coach Ross Dallow and I made the decision early on that every time we compete this year we want to exceed the qualifying standard no matter what the conditions," Faumuina said.

Click here to read the full article at Stuff.co.nz

Olympic 1500m bronze – soon to be silver – medallist Nick Willis has confirmed that he will compete in the feature 800m event at the 2010 International Track Meet in Christchurch on March 18th at QE2 Stadium. This will be a key step in the Kiwi star’s build-up to the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October, where he will seek to become the first athlete since Peter Snell in 1962 to win the 800m-1500m double.

Organisers have also confirmed that stars from the 2009 event who will be returning to compete are the mile winner Jeff Riseley, 3000m winner Ryan Gregson, and Irishman David Campbell, who finished third in the mile. In addition to these athletes, four-time Australian champion Nick Bromley will be challenging Willis in the 800m, and rising Australian stars Jeremy Roff and James Nipperess are competing in the 1500m.

Meet Director Craig Motley said “We are extremely excited at how the 2010 event is coming together, and it is promising to be bigger and better than 2009. We are getting a lot of interest from extremely high profile athletes in a range of events, and being a Commonwealth Games year a lot of athletes will look to a meet like this to chase qualifying performances.”

Although last year the main middle distance events were the mile & 3000m, the 2010 programme for both men & women is structured around championship distances (800m, 1500m, 5000m) to provide opportunities for athletes to target Commonwealth Games qualifying times.
Willis is currently in New Zealand for warm weather training, before returning to the US to race indoors in February. He will then return to Christchurch in March for the International Track Meet on the 18th and the national championships 8 days later.

---

For further details contact Paul Coughlan, paul@internationaltrackmeet.co.nz, or ph 027-2233-028

For further meet information go to www.internationaltrackmeet.co.nz

 

 2010 International Track Meet

 

 

Track and Field at its best in New Zealand.

2010 Promo video compiled from Sky TV coverage highlights from the inaugural 2009 ITM where Monique Williams claimed the NZ Resident Women's 200m record, David Ambler eclipsed Jamacian Don Quarrie's Men's 100m stadium record set at the 1974 Commonwealth Games and lowered his U/19 NZ record while Australian Ryan Gregson reclaimed his Australian U/19 3000m record.

Make sure you are there on the 18th March 2010.

www.internationaltrackmeet.co.nz

 

Nick Willis to run in Christchurch event

 

By RICHARD KNOWLER - The Press

 

Olympic 1500m medallist Nick Willis has been confirmed to run in Christchurch next year, although in which event remains uncertain.

Willis has told the International Track Meet organisers he will contest either the 800m or 1500m at QEII on March 18. The Kiwi athlete is expected to be upgraded from the bronze to the silver medal following the International Olympics Committee's decision to strip Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi of the gold for doping in Beijing in 2008.

"He's not 100 per cent sure at this stage what events he will be in, but he has confirmed he will be competing at the meeting. He will wait and decide that in early January," meet organiser Leyton Tremain said. "I guess he will see how his preparation goes."

Willis is expected to spend about six weeks in New Zealand during the summer and will train with the Kiwirun tour in the North Island before returning to the United States.

There he is likely to enter the Reebok Boston Indoor Games on February 6.

The 26-year-old will also race at the national championships in Christchurch 10 days after the International Track Meet.

Willis was eager to compete in the International Mile race this year but was forced to withdraw because of a hamstring injury.

"He expressed a desire to want to compete in New Zealand and to bring athletes of his calibre to our shores, so that is why we are speaking to him and why the concept arose," Tremain said.

"It is a chance to race at home and an opportunity to help grow and develop the sport," he said.Willis might be wise not to hold his breath regarding an Olympic medal upgrade because Ramzi can still appeal via the Court of Arbitration.

Olympic gold medallist Valerie Vili is unlikely to enter the Christchurch event because of a crammed programme.

The shot putter is scheduled to attend the world indoor championships in Qatar the weekend before and the chances of being ready to compete again following a quick turnaround seem unlikely.

"She is someone we would love to get to our meeting, but unfortunately she is not competing until Sunday evening and our event is on the Thursday. Unfortunately, with all the travel there is not going to be enough time for her to be fresh enough to compete," Tremain said.

More than 3000 spectators were estimated to have attended last season's event, which broke even.

A volunteer organising committee runs the event on behalf of Athletics Canterbury.

Twenty-three athletes from five countries attended last season and it is hoped more will attend next year.

Where there's a Willis there's a way to hold a meet

 

NEW ZEALAND'S biggest track meeting in more than a decade is back on the calendar for 2010, with Olympic bronze medallist Nick Willis again involved in attracting world-class overseas athletes to compete in this country.

Christchurch's International Track Meet last March drew more than 3000 spectators to QEII Stadium - the best turnout for an athletics event in New Zealand in nearly 20 years.
Willis was pivotal in securing several top Americans and while he withdrew, injured, days before the event, he still fronted to sign autographs.
The meet broke even, prompting organiser Leyton Tremain to confirm yesterday that it would be held again in 2010 at the same venue on Thursday, March 18-10 days before the national athletics championships, also at QEII Stadium.
Last year, 23 athletes from five countries came here, including several top Australians and leading British middle- distance runner Andy Baddeley, and Tremain expects an increased overseas field next year, based on feedback from top Melbourne-based Kiwi 10km specialist Jason Woolhouse.

"Rumours and word of mouth is that there is a lot of interest," says Tremain, who will begin approaching athletes this week.
"People have been asking what our plans are . . . and we hope that the meeting will be bigger and better. Some of those Australian guys who didn't travel and were reserving judgement in year one are now keen to come over."

Tremain says several athletes used last year's meet as a springboard to more success. Jeff Riseley, who ran a personal best at the meet, went on to run a 3min 51sec mile in Europe while Collis Birmingham, second in the mile, later broke the Australian 10km record.
But Tremain says the purpose of the meet is to create strong fields for emerging Kiwi athletes to test themselves against and he plans to tailor- make races to suit runners such as Kiwi 200m runner Monique Williams. He says he won't expand the programme but is targeting much deeper fields.

"We've proven New Zealand can be competitive with the rest of the world," he says.
"Maybe people thought the world had moved on and we could no longer compete, but we have proven we can and we will target those events where we are competitive."

But he knows the crowd will be attracted by New Zealand's elite athletes - Willis, Valerie Vili and Kimberley Smith. Tremain says he has already talked to Vili's coach, Kirsten Hellier, and she is keen to compete but will have been involved in the world indoor championships a week earlier.
Willis is also unconfirmed. He will be returning to Wellington over the holiday season to help his brother Stephen launch a running tours venture, but the wedding of his best friend, top Canadian runner Nate Brannen, may clash with the Christchurch event.
Even if he doesn't compete, Willis will have a role.

"Nick is very passionate about the meet, and he understands the importance of it for the sport," says Tremain. "He doesn't look at it as a race for himself but as an instrumental development tool for Kiwi athletes."

Meanwhile, the New Zealand xterra (off-road triathlon) championships are in Rotorua next Saturday, with Steven O'Callaghan and Kyle MacDonald and Ady Ngawati and Lara Phillips in the women's, both pros and age-group athletes qualify for the world trail running championships in Hawaii in December.

Steve Kilgallon - Sunday Star-Times