Two-time Olympic medallist Nick Willis has learned a lot during his 17-year international career. If the middle-distance runner from New Zealand could send a letter of advice to his younger self, this is what it would say.

It wasn’t everything he wanted, but it was exactly what he needed.

Ten New Zealand athletes have been named in the initial selection for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Athletics New Zealand has announced a team of five athletes to compete at the IAAF World Indoor Championships Portland 2016 on 17-20 March.

Meseret Defar was gunning for her own 11-year-old meeting record of 8:30.05 in the women’s 3000m at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, the second IAAF World Indoor Tour event of 2016, and she came tantalisingly close to it in her first race on a track since 2013, running a world-leading 8:30.83 on Sunday (14).

New Balance Indoor Grand Prix seats are less expensive along the backstretch, but it’s entirely likely that the fans who snapped up tickets for there will get the best show at the second of this year’s IAAF World Indoor Tour meetings on Sunday (14).

Nick Willis thought about retiring from athletics after the 2012 Olympics. The silver medallist at 1500m in Beijing four years earlier, he arrived in London past his peak and could do no better than ninth in his second Olympic final and third Olympic Games. Willis wondered if it was time to walk away.

The Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center saw another world best, a world junior best, and six world-leading marks at the 20th edition of the IAAF Indoor Permit meeting now known as the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix on Saturday night (7).

Ten more global medallists have been added to the array of big names competing at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, an IAAF Indoor Permit meeting, in Boston on 7 February.

Nick Willis set a New Zealand 1500m record of 3:29.91 in Monaco last July to become the fastest non-African in the world for the distance in 2014. The 2008 Olympic 1500m silver medallist speaks about the best things in his athletics career.

Nick Willis, the 2008 Olympic 1500m silver medallist, is among the world's best middle-distance runners.

The New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, an IAAF Indoor Permit meeting, delivered the expected world indoor 4x800m record* as a US All Stars team led home by Erik Sowinski clocked 7:13.11 on Saturday (8).