Nick Willis has written his name in the history books with another sub-4-minute mile run in Florida.
The 37-year-old New Zealander clocked 3:58.63 at the Orange Winter Classic meet in Clermont, making him the first person to run under 4 minutes for the mile for 19 years in a row.
The record was previously held by the legendary John Walker, who accomplished the feat in every year between 1973 and 1990.
Willis first broke the 4-minute mark as a teenager in 2003, and his latest time indicates his preparations for the Tokyo Olympics are on track.
Willis told Stuff last year that a new role with Boston-based athletic apparel company Tracksmith as athlete experience manager would allow him to dip his toes back into the workplace without sacrificing his running.
“It’s given me a new jolt, a new excitement,” Willis told Stuff. “It’s added another twist to this really awesome journey my running career has taken me on.
“Now I get to pick and choose how I want to approach it, and at the moment it’s still at the highest level to go to Tokyo and still run as many sub-4 min miles as I can.
“But maybe there are some other areas in the running sphere that I can switch focuses on. There is an excitement of freedom that has opened up before me in that sense.”
Willis had been in negotiations with Tracksmith even before he was thrust into the Covid-19 lockdown in New Zealand and his new job, which he’s nearly a month into, enables him to mix his company commitments with his own ambitions.
“It’s a fulltime role, but I don’t have to do my running in addition to my work obligations. It’s part of that,” Willis said.
“My training and racing is as valuable to the company as additional work I put in. That allows me to be flexible as I pursue my ambitions.
“This keeps me going. When Tokyo was postponed until 2021, I had to think ‘do I really have the willingness to sacrifice my future other interests?’ This means I don’t need to put a time limit on that.
“It’s a blessing, I’ve got a new lease of life in running … and I’m starting to dive into a world I’ve sort of been shut out of for the last 15 years.”
The Tokyo Olympics are due to start in July, although the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has prompted speculation that they will not go ahead.
Willis, however, is clearly is good shape as he attempts to add another Olympic medal to his collection, having won a silver in 2008 in Beijing and a bronze in Rio in 2016.
