Certainly Crowned Champion by his Superlative Attitude alone: Nick Willis, Apparently Ultimately Denied the 1,500 metre Beijing Olympics' Gold despite his two 'superiors' both now being implicated as drug/doping cheats, proves by his superior spirit he really won that top spot in not just the technical sense

It seems that New Zealand's contemporary running star, the frequently-selected 1500-metre Commonwealth Games' and Olympics' competitor Nick Willis, is to be ultimately denied the much-coveted prize he has now been shown to evidently and eminently deserve. Apparently through officialdom's inertia and/or the bane of technical re-evaluation deadlines and the like. Too bad.

Nevertheless, though his two Beijing 'superiors', *both the original winner, Rashid Ramzi, and after Ramzi's disqualification in 2009 for failing a drug test, the then-'winner' Kenyan Asbel Kiprop, (who over a month ago **now failed his own 'off-competition' doping test), have now been shown to have - ***in all likelihood - been invalidated as gold and silver winners of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it would appear that technical niceties and such like now render any re-assignment of those original placements to be, as Willis himself reflected over a month ago himself, a mere 'moot point'.

More's the pity. For if Willis had indeed been given a paper 'bump-up' with hindsight's wonderful benefit, he'd have joined some illustrious company, and become only the ****fourth kiwi 1500-metre gold medal winner/champion; quite some achievement indeed.

But that's if the assigning of external glories really means all that much in the long run, and apparently, from Willis's extremely gracious standpoint, that seems much less of an issue to him.  Such is made abundantly clear in a piece by the online NZ Herald Sports Editor (or Reporter) Andrew Alderson on May 3rd. It's a report in which Nick Willis shines forth in all his attitudinal glory unlike so many other contemporary would-be/'wannabe' sportstars, showing that there still remain a few such athletes in our modern era who are actuated neither by 'filthy lucre' or fame; but who compete for the sheer joy and challenge of the competition, and who race more against themselves and their own previous personal bests than so much against their various rivals as such.

Yes, Alderson's article is well worth a read, and shows how Nick Willis' exemplary attitude is such a refreshing and unexpected contrast to that of so many of his erstwhile competitors overseas and athletes in general from across the globe of recent years and decades. And Willis' top quality outlook is shown no less in his extreme unwillingness to jump to conclusions and gratuitously bag his last remaining Beijing rival, Kiprop, choosing to believe the best of him, but simultaneously likewise expressing a deep desire to see such antics - which he believes have sadly though justifiably dragged the once-great name of athletics through the mud - exposed, censored, dealt with and ultimately eliminated from the sport.

Yes, Nick, in my book anyhow you've been crowned king of Beijing's 1500 metre final in absentia...and however unrecognized (like Yours Truly in my mid-twenties, in a sense) by Officialdom Incorporated.

*Though I cannot seem to get the precise info thereabouts (online today), it would appear, in Kiprop's case also, to at best be an extremely problematic award. (Both Kiprop and Willis were respectively re-assigned from silver to gold, and bronze to silver winners, after Ramzi's 2009 disqualification.)

**Though how this (apparent) recent test (failure) relates to or should result in a re-examination of Kiprop's success a good ten years ago now is anyone's guess.

***At best, in Kiprop's case anyway (as mentioned above), an extremely problematic (unchallenged Olympics') placement.

****Perhaps I'm missing something somewhere, but I'd have assigned him as the fifth such winner, seeing as (see for example my most recent blogpost) the just-deceased Dick Quax *****himself scooped up a number of 1500 metre wins (or maybe these weren't wins, only well-placed seconds and third etcetera) as five (half-plus) of his (overall) nine successful race placements in his (essentially) seventies-era prime. 'After' and alongside such kiwi running greats/legends evidently as Sir John Walker, Sir Peter Snell and Jack Lovelock.

*****Yes, my memory must be a little tackier than I'd supposed - or at least in regard to the fact (after just re-checking my Dick Quax 'in memoriam' blogpost of the other day) that Quax's own highlights were not in the 1500 metres at all (as I'd recalled - or was that Rod Dixon, rather?), but in the 5000 metres, though Quax did get a silver at the 1,500 metre once.