Willis and Blincoe miss out on final of 1500m.

10 August 2005
The cruel world of international competition hit Nick Willis when he failed to qualify for the final of the 1500m at the world athletic championships in Helsinki. Willis finished sixth in the first semi-final in 3m 40.87s, just missing out on advancing by one place and 0.14s.
Adrian Blincoe in the second, faster run semi-final, also missed out after finishing ninth in 3m 38.20s. Blincoe needed to run faster than 3m 36.76s to advance further.
Arturo Casado of Spain led Willis' race at a slow pace of 61.39s for the first lap, 2m 3.82s to the 800m and 3m 1.79s to the 1200m. It then became a sprint to the finish with only 0.22s covering the first five places. The race was won by Adil Kaouch of Morocco in 3m 40.51s. The second semi-final was won by the favourite for the gold medal, Rachid Ramzi of Bahrain in 3m 34.69s.

Results;
Men 1500m, semi-final 1; Adil Kaouch (Morocco) 3m 40.51s 1, Arturo Casado (Spain) 3m 40.61s 2, Alex Kipchirchir (Kenya) 3m 40.68s 3, Rui Silva (Portugal) 3m 40.72s 4, Reyes Estevez (Spain) 3m 40.73s 5, Nick Willis (NZ) 3m 40.87s 6.
Semi-final 2; Rashid Ramzi (Bahrain) 3m 34.69s 1, Alan Webb (USA) 3m 36.07s 2, Tarek Boukensa (Algeria) 3m 36.14s 3. Also Adrian Blincoe (NZ) 3m 38.20s 9