Willis Readies for London

One of New Zealand’s “most revered track and field athletes”, Nick Willis, 29, will defend his Olympic silver medal in the men’s 1500m run at the 2012 Games in London. The London Olympics will be Willis’s third. Willis, who has lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for the past decade, ran his second fastest ever mile to finish seventh in the Bowerman Mile at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon on 3 June. “It’s always one of the best meets of the year because there’s not a limit to how many people from a country can be in the race,” Willis said. “So often the field is better than an Olympic final could be, and this year [was] no exception.” Willis was born in Lower Hutt. He won the silver medal in the 1500m at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing with a time of 3:34.16 minutes.