Kiwi veteran Nick Willis has made mile history, becoming the first runner to crack four minutes for the iconic event in 20 consecutive years.
Competing in the Wannamaker Mile at the prestigious Millrose Games in New York, Willis, 38, clocked 3m 59.71s - his second attempt at achieving the feat this year and his 63rd race under the milestone time.
A few minutes after midnight on January 1, he recorded 4m 00.22s and had to wait another four weeks to find race conditions suited to his goal.
While Australian Ollie Hoare set a new national indoor record of 3m 50.83s, Willis crossed the finish line almost nine seconds behind in ninth, but under the barrier that has long served as the yardstick by which middle distance runners are measured.
Afterwards, Willis compared the feat to the first man to achieve a sub-four-minute mile - Englishman Roger Bannister in 1954.
"That's exactly what I was thinking, obviously not to the same international magnitude, but to my internal goal," he says. "There was that moment of tension as I was waiting - it was really close."
Willis found an unwilling ally in teenage American phenom Hobbs Kessler, who was expected to run nearer the front of the field, but had an off-day that helped drag the Kiwi through to his target.
Running even splits, he reached 400m in 1m 00.2s, 800m in 1m 59.99s and 1200m in 3m 00.95s, needing a 59-second final 400m to dip under four minutes.
"I saw the clock at the bell and thought, 'I've got to be able to do it', but then I wasn't able to find the next gear," he reflects. "I wasn't tying up, but I wasn't accelerating either, so I knew it would be close.
"I had fun in my warm-up, doing the pre-race stuff, getting my name called and going to the start-line, the first couple of laps... after that, it wasn't fun.
"I hurt. To be honest, the hardest thing about racing at my age is you question, 'why do I put myself through this anymore?'"
Willis is the only Kiwi to win two Olympic medals over 1500m - silver at Beijing 2008 and bronze at Rio 2016 - while also winning medals at three consecutive Commonwealth Games, including gold at Melbourne 2006.
His Rio bronze made him the oldest man to medal in the Olympics 1500m and his 19th year of four-minute miles broke the record he previously held with countryman John Walker, the 1976 Olympic 1500m champion.
Willis reached the semi-finals of last year's Tokyo Olympics, clocking 3m 35.41s for ninth.
Also at the Millrose Games, Geordie Beamish set a new NZ indoor record over 3000m with 7m 39.50s, beating Zane Robertson's previous mark by almost five seconds.
