Five time Olympian Nick Willis is through to the semi-finals of the 1500m.
The 38-year-old Willis finished seventh in his heat with the top six qualifying directly - but Willis advanced as one of the fastest runners outside the top six.
"I was a bit nervous when I saw how fast the first heat and I was like, gosh I'm going to have to run the fastest time in the last three years in order to qualify," he said post race.
"But when I got on the start line I had a lot of peace about me and was like, let's see what happens and I was really fortunate to get in a strong position up front early on."
Nick Willis is a two time Olympic medallist. Photo: Photosport
"The pace was very moderate, which suited me 'cause I'm old, I don't like a fast first lap, but then the Aussie Stewart McSweyn really wound it up the middle laps and that suited me really well also, so I was very fortunate to get towed through to a really good time and it was fortunately fast enough to get through."
While Willis advanced fellow New Zealand Sam Tanner didn't.
Tanner finished ninth in his heat which was the slowest of the three.
"It was just one of those messy races where everybody is just pushing and shoving and you know, I felt like I was in a pretty good position in different parts of the race, but right on the bell some dude cut me off and I ended up shoving him, two hand touch rugby-style, straight up the back of him, and then just lost a bit of momentum and kind of lost touch with the group," he said.
"I tried to save a little bit in the last 100, which I actually felt pretty good in, but I was just too far back at that point. So disappointing, but it was super fun to be out here for my first Olympics watching all these experienced guys run and really do what athletics is all about."
-RNZ
