Olympics: Willis sublime on athletics opening day

New Zealand athletes covered every shade from the sublime to the ridiculous in the opening day of the track and field competition at the Bird's Nest Stadium here yesterday.

Nick Willis, orchestrating a well-judged race in his 1500m heat to qualify for Tuesday's semifinals, epitomised exactly what a well-prepared athlete can achieve with the right mental approach.

Beatrice Faumuina, a former world champion discus thrower contesting her fourth Olympics, was at the other end of the spectrum. Needing 61.50m to qualify in the top 12 for Monday's final, she could only manage a dismal 57.15m to finish 12th in her group and 28th overall.

Somewhere in the middle were 10,000m runner Kimberley Smith and heptathlete Rebecca Wardell, who both threw everything they had into their respective events, only to be beaten by better athletes.

In the heat and humidity of a sticky Beijing evening, Willis controlled his first heat in the men's 1500m well, comfortably qualifying for Sunday's semifinals when he crossed second in three minutes 36.01 seconds behind Frenchman Mehdi Baala's winning 3:35.87.

It was the sixth fastest time across the four heats. The first five runners from each heat and the next fastest four overall went through to Sunday's semifinals, with the final scheduled for Tuesday.

Willis has drawn the second semifinal, which includes last year's world 1500m and 5000m champion Bernard Lagat (USA), who won bronze at the Sydney Olympics and silver in Athens four years ago.

He will also be up against Kenyan Augustine Choge, the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games 5000m champion, and world indoor 1500m champion Deresse Mekonnen of Ethiopia.

Willis, the Melbourne Commonwealth Games 1500m, hit the front after three laps of yesterday's race, stretching out over the last lap to stay out of trouble.

"That was the main reason why I did it. No way would I usually take the lead that early, but if you've taken the momentum, you may as well keep it going," he said.

Although happy with his time -- reasonably quick for a heat -- Willis said he was still a little nervous in the run down to the finish line.

"I didn't actually want to be in the lead coming into the straight because then you have a target on your back."

Heptathlete Rebecca Wardell, on target to better the personal best she set barely two months ago, finished the first day of the heptathlon in 24th position out of 43 starters.

Despite being "a little bit rusty" at 14.07sec over the 100m hurdles, Wardell was rapt to notch up a personal best 1.71m high jump and a respectable 14.28 shot put before the long day drained her legs for the 200m, l eaving her less than happy with her closing 24.64.

Smith, eyeing a possible bronze in the 10,000m, gave it her best shot, but fell off the killing pace set by Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) with around 4000m left. She finished ninth in 30:51, near a minute down on Dibaba's winning 29:54.66.

"It was a pretty ridiculous race, it was really fast and I'm pretty disappointed," Smith said afterwards.

"They set a really fast pace, and I went out fast with them and kind of died. It was the second fastest time ever in history, and an Olympic record. It was an amazing race."

Faumuina, while disappointed with her effort, came out on the attack afterwards.

"It was my fourth Olympics, I've trained less than seven months for it, and to be honest with you, I had a ball out there. It was exciting," she said.

Faumuina said journalists had written her off last year, "but I came back, and now I'm looking forward to next year.

"You can't take this moment away from me, no matter how much you write it up or not."