Bronze for Nick Willis in 1500 meters final

Nick Willis celebrates third place in the Men's 1500m Final
Originally uploaded by SPARC Beijing Olympics 2008

Nick Willis ran the race of his life to finish in third place and take home the bronze medal in last nights glamour event of the Olympic track and field programme, the mens 1500 meters race.
Willis, the gold medallist in this event at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games of 2006, took the hopes of the nation into the race with him. The nation was desperate for an Olympic track medal after a 32 year drought since the great John Walker won gold in the same event at Montreal in 1976.

Willis ran a smart race, staying on the rail throughout and managing to stay out of trouble also. He stayed near the back of the field for the first 1000 meters before looking to move forward over the last 500 when the pace went on. With around 100 meters to go Willis got himself into third place which he held on to through to the finish, finishing in a time of 3:34:16, just holding off the fast finishing Frenchman Mehdi Baala.

Bahrain's Rashid Ramsi took the gold medal in a time of 3:32:94 with Kipruto Kiprod of Kenya finishing in second in a time of 3:33:1.

Read more about the race here.

Olympic Bronze for Docherty

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Originally uploaded by sportsmatters

New Zealand triathlete Bevan Docherty got up for a third place finish in todays Olympic Triathlon in Beijing. It was a strong race from Docherty, the former world champ and Athens Silver medalist.

Docherty, who is considered a strong runner, along with a small bunch of fellow competitors quickly ran down the two leaders following the bike leg, and then maintained a good pace over the last 5 km in what proved to be a very tactical race. One by one the runners dropped off as they found the pace too quick, leaving just Docherty, Spaniard Javier Gomez, German Jan Frodeno and Canadian Simon Whitfield left to contest the final lap of the 2.5 km run course.

The tactics continued right to the end with no one wanting to make their run too soon. In the end it was Frodeno who kicked on with about 200 meters to go. Frodeno claimed Gold with Whitfield taking Silver. Spanish favourite Javier Gomez was the one who missed out.

Docherty seemed pleased with his effort afterwards admitting that he had no more in the tank come the finish line.

You can read more about this exciting race here.

All eyes now are on Nick Willis in the 1500 meters final tonight.