Champion kiwi athlete Willis’s dream of emulating Snell at CWG ended by injury

Wellington, Sep 19 (ANI): New Zealand middle distance runner Nick Willis’s dream of emulating Sir Peter Snell at the 2010 Commonwealth Games has ended as the Olympic Games silver medallist has been forced to pull out of the 800m in Delhi due to injury.

Willis will now focus on his preferred 1500m - the event that he won in Melbourne four years ago.

Snell won the imperial equivalents, the half-mile and mile, at the Empire Games in Perth in 1962.Willis had declared his intention to double up in Delhi last year. But the 27-year-old had knee surgery in March and has since overcome a hip problem, The New Zealand Herald reports.

“The 800m was off the cards as soon as I found out about my knee. I didn’t even have the qualifying time for it in the period required. Just coming back from the operation was enough of a challenge. The original thinking was to give me an additional motivation, given I had won the 1500m before. This is enough of a challenge for me at the moment,” the paper quoted Willis, as saying.

Willis has come back strongly from his injuries following his 1500m in Milan last week in 3m 35.17s against a field which included current world champion Yusuf Kamel of Bahrain.

Willis is expected to face some tough competition at the 2010 Games with the Kenyan contingent naming Silas Kiplagat (the fastest man over the distance in the world this year with a 3m 29s) and Asbel Kiprop (the athlete promoted to gold in the Olympic 1500m at Beijing). (ANI)