In his first race since his disappointing ninth placing in the 1500m final at the London Olympics, New Zealand's Nick Willis has finished third in a 1000m race in Austria, running a personal best time.
Willis' time of 2 minutes 16.58 seconds is just a hundredth of a second outside the New Zealand record held by Sir John Walker, set in Oslo in 1980.
Sir Peter Snell ran best of 2 minutes 16.6 seconds at Auckland in 1964, a hand timed result which is listed alongside Walker's record.
Willis says he was disappointed to miss the record but was pleased to be back competing ahead of this week's Lausanne Diamond League 1500m.
