Olympic 1500m silver medallist Nick Willis suffered a rare defeat on home soil when he was beaten over 800m at the Porritt Classic meeting in Hamilton on Saturday.
Willis was forced to settle for third after being beaten by former national champion Aunese Curreen and current national champion Tim Hawkes. Curreen won in 1min 50.84sec with Hawkes just .04sec behind.
Willis, who was using the event as a shakedown ahead of his race over his preferred 1500m at the Christchurch International meeting on Saturday, ran 1min 51.56sec.
He will receive his medal from the Beijing Olympics from Sir John Walker prior to the meeting at the QEII Stadium.
Commonwealth Games double medallist Nikki Hamblin won her 800m race from Angela Smit in 2min 05.42sec.
