No rain, no gale force winds, no earthquakes, Nick Willis, good performaces = Capital Classic 2014.
Meeting Results
Nick Willis cruises home in Capital Classic
TOBY
ROBSON AT NEWTOWN PARK
Nick Willis has cruised to victory in the 800m at the Capital Classic in
what he said was a test run for a new tactical approach to the up-coming world
indoor championships in
Poland.
Wearing a Wellington-yellow singlet, the Olympic 1500m silver medallist
started slowly before breezing past pace-setter Brad Mathas on the home straight
in front of about 1000 fans.
A barely out of breath Willis said after the race he'd dropped down from
his preferred distance in a bid to test his speed over the final stages of the
1500m.
"We've got the world indoor champs coming up in six weeks and
traditionally it's quite a tactical race with the last 600m being really
fast," he said. "Doing an 800m is a bit of a shock to the system to
remember how to sprint again.
"I was out of the gate pretty slow because I've been working on
endurance. You can run a good mile on endurance training, but there's no better
way to for get your speed going than doing a race."
His time of 1m50.04s was on a par with his last competitive 800m race last
year, but well short of the personal best of 1m45.54s set in Belgium
in 2004.
"Anything around that 1.50 range is fine... today was more about the
benefit of doing the training and also getting to run in front of my friends
and family as well.
"It wasn't easy. I was happy to hold my form, but most importantly as
I crossed the finish line although my legs were knackered I was able to regain
my breath quite quickly."
Willis, who later ran as a pace-maker in the 3000m, said his extra
attention to tactics is partly because last time he ran at the world indoor
championships he was bumped off the track and disqualified.
"Maybe getting to the front is a better strategy on the indoor track
where there's no wind," he said. "I know my strength was there. It
was more a matter of if I went out too hard, I just haven't done the training
to handle that early pace. My coach wanted me to run negative splits, which
means the second lap's faster than the first and we were probably pretty spot
on to doing that so it worked out."
Willis said his focus on the world indoors was partly to stop himself from
thinking too far ahead to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow
later this year.
"I try not to look too far ahead. It's just nice that there's the
world indoors to sort of take my mind off of Glasgow
till around April comes and it all fits in with my plan anyway and it'd mean a
lot to get on the podium at a world level again."
Willis also revealed a big development off the track with a new
sponsorship deal with Adidas taking him through to the next Olympic Games.
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