The 26-year-old crossed the line third at the Olympics in Beijing but was upgraded to the silver medal after Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi was disqualified after testing positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs.

He now hopes to go one better in London and become the first New Zealander to win the Olympic 1500m title since John Walker in Montreal in 1976.

Willis said: "My goal is to be favourite going into London.

"Although it will provide more pressure, I think, ultimately, like John Walker experienced [in the 1976 Olympic 1500m final], you get to dictate the terms of the race.

"You have an amount of respect and if you capitalise on that, your opponents can almost hand over the race to you."

Willis, who broke Walker's New Zealand indoor 1500m record in Birmingham today when he finished fifth in the Aviva Grand Prix in 3min 35.80sec, plans to double-up at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi later this year.

He won the 1500m title in Melbourne four years ago.


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