Nick Willis smashes record

Nick Willis has smashed his New Zealand 1500 metres record in finishing third at the Monaco Diamond League meeting.

Willis has run three minutes 30.35 seconds, taking 1.44 seconds off the record time he ran at the same meet last year.

It's also an Oceania record, beating Australian Ryan Gregson's 2010 record of three minutes 31.06 seconds.

He finished behind a duo of Kenyan runners, with Beijing Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop running 2012's world fastest time of three minutes 28.88 seconds coming first, and Nixon Chepseba second with a time of three minutes 29.77 seconds.

The result comes just two weeks before the 1500 metre heats at the London Olympics.

Willis says it's a massive boost.

"It just says that everything that we'd hoped and planned for is coming to fruition. Our dream was to run 3.30 in this race, knowing that we're still on the way up with improvement to go in the next two weeks."

He says he hung on the back of a good pace.

"I went through a split very similar to what I did last week in London when I faded terribly."

Photo: Getty Images