Willis wins dramatic US mile in PB time.

Lower Hutt athlete Nick Willis has continued his winning way on the US collegiate circuit, winning a key indoor mile race in dramatic circumstances last weekend.

Willis, currently in his second year studying at the University of Michigan, beat some of the leading milers on the US collegiate circuit in the Meyo Mile, which was restarted after a number of athletes including Willis fell early in the first lap.

In a phone call from his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Willis told his father Richard that the field in the Meyo Mile was 18-strong and when it came together on the first tight bend, there was a tangle of bodies and a number of athletes went down. Willis scraped his face on the wooden track and was shaken up, and the race was stopped. Under the collegiate rules, if a fall occurs inside the first 100m the race can be restarted, so Willis and his fellow runners had 90 seconds to compose themselves before the gun went again.

This time Willis drifted off the back of the pack, determined not to get caught up in any physical confrontations. He ran the first half of the race in a relatively conservative 2min 02sec, and with the field

Nick at the 2003 Bays relay.

beginning to spread out he began to move up. The third 400m was reeled off in an even 60sec before Willis upped his pace again and surged to the lead with a blistering 54-second final 400m and the Meyo Mile title.

The 3:56.55sec winning time was Willis' best over the mile distance, and he led home his team-mate and rival Nate Brannen by nearly 2 seconds.

The mile win comes a week after Willis recorded a classy 3000m time in Boston, running 7min 44sec in a race won by the great Ethiopian Haile Gebrsellassie.