Willis Advances to IAAF World Championships Final
8/11/2017 4:43:00 PM | Men's Track & Field
LONDON, England -- After making it through an incredibly tightly grouped finish in Friday's (Aug. 11) 1,500m semifinal race, former University of Michigan track and field standout Nick Willis has earned the right to go for his fourth global medal in that event.
Willis, a two-time Olympic medalist and IAAF Indoor medalist who amassed two national titles at five All-America honors during his Michigan career (2003-05), took sixth to advance with an at-large berth into Sunday's final by surviving a semifinal competition that saw each of the top eight finishers cross the line within a second of one another.
The New Zealander will race Sunday at 8:30 p.m. local time (3:30 p.m. EDT) as part of the national broadcast of the championships on NBC.
After starting the final lap in second place, Willis was able to hold off enough of the hard-charging field to clock 3:38.68, with .25 of a second between him and the fastest non-qualifier.
On Thursday, Willis ran 3:42.75 to finish fifth in his preliminary heat and earn an automatic berth into Friday's semifinal.
Willis is aiming for his first-ever top-three finish at the outdoor IAAF World Championships. A fixture at the IAAF World Championships having competed in five of the last six editions, Willis has twice been a top-10 finisher during that time, taking sixth in 2015 and 10th in 2007.
His longevity at the top of the international scene is among the most impressive of all time. At 34 years and 110 days of age by the time of the final, Willis is just 140 days shy of the record for the oldest men's 1,500m finalist in IAAF World Championships history. The current mark is held by American Bernard Lagat at 34 years and 250 days.
Should Willis claim the gold medal, he would best Lagat as the most veteran world champion in the event's history (32 years, 260 days).
Representing Great Britain in the 100-meter hurdles earlier in the day, Tiffany Porter was unable to advance out of the preliminary round of her signature event. Porter, a five-time national champion during her Michigan career (2006-09), clocked 13.18 into a 0.9m/s headwind to finish sixth in her heat and just .03 of a second shy of qualifying for the semifinals.
Porter had finished top-five at the IAAF World Championships in each of the last three editions of the meet -- highlighted by a bronze in 2013 -- to go along with a silver and a pair of bronze medals at the IAAF Indoor World Championships. She qualified to each of the past two Olympic Games, finishing seventh in Rio last summer.
