Valerie Vili wins world shot put title 27. August 07

Valerie Vili with a brilliant last round, which she dedicated to her Dad, won the World Championship shot put title in Osaka last evening.

Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus led the competition from the start with a put of 20.04m, with Vili sending the ball of steel out to 19.89m in round one.

Into the final round, with a shout from her coach Kirsten Hellier to do it for her Dad who passed away in May, Vili unleashed a put of 20.54m for a New Zealand record by 34cm and the Gold medal. Not to be outdone Ostapchuk responded with 20.48m in the final round.

But the World title was Vili's by six centimetres adding to the other New Zealand world title won by Beatrice Faumuina in the discus throw at the 1997 world championships in Athens.

The 22 year old said that she dedicated the last throw to her Dad who passed away in May.
"My coach said to me before I went out to my last throw to do this one for Dad and I looked up to the sky and all I could think about is getting to the middle and smacking the crap out of it and to walk away with a world title, national and Oceania record, can't ask for more than that," said Vili.
"It was an intense competition Nadzeya Ostapchuk she's a great competitor, have a lot of respect for her and she came out a did another good throw on the last round as well. It was an anxious wait just there for a second when her results came up, but as soon as they came up I was jumping for joy.
"I'm a happy lady tonight," she added.
Vili had earlier in the morning qualified for the final with the best throw of the 12 finalists of 19.45m.

Vili was world youth shot put champion in Debrecen Hungary in 2001 and world junior champion in Kingston Jamaica in 2002. Vili has competed at the last two world championships, finishing fifth in Paris in 2003 and third in Helsinki in 2005. Last year Vili won the Commonwealth Games gold medal in the shot put with 19.66m, was second in the world athletic final and a week later in September won the shot put at the world cup competition in Athens.
At the 2004 Athens Olympic Games Vili was eighth, with 18.56m.

Kimberley Smith finished an outstanding fifth in the final of the 10,000m.
Smith was in with a chance of the bronze medal with two laps of the 25 lap race left. The defending champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia had the gold medal for her taking on the last lap and former 5000m world record holder Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey was well clear in second.
This left Smith, Kara Goucher of the States and Joanne Pavey of Great Britain to battle out the bronze.
Goucher challenged first and made a break which she held to the finish and Pavey had the measure of Smith going into the final lap.

Raced in extremely hot humid conditions Dibaba recorded a slow 31m 55.41s, beating Abeylegesse by four seconds. Four seconds separated Goucher, Pavey and Smith, with Smith running 32m 6.89s.

Smith said that it was hard to be so close then fall short.
"It was there for the taking the bronze medal, I knew before the race - it is very hard to be so close," said Smith.
Smith said that the race was pretty slow at the start, with lots of pushing and shoving.
"They made it a two mile race which is what I kind of wanted but then it was too quick in the end with those girls both having run faster at 1500m," said Smith.
"The gold medal was pretty much decided before the race, it was the silver and bronze that were up for grabs.
"Fifth place is very good, I mean I know that. Not many New Zealanders gone quite fifth on the track, I don't know when the last was, so I mean I'm happy with that, but it's very disappointing," she said.

Nick Willis qualified for the semi final of the 1500m at the World Athletic Championships in Osaka, after finishing seventh in his heat.
In extremely hot humid conditions Willis recorded the fastest of the extra six fastest qualifying times running 3m 40.18s.

Willis started as he had planned moving up from the rear of the field with 600m remaining. Willis was challenged by the eventual winner Mehdi Baala of France down the back straight. Into the final straight Willis was unable to hold a top six placing.

"I didn't think the heat would be a bigger factor, even before the race people were sweating a bunch," said Willis.

"No one wanted to be aggressive, and you can tell by the times that I was the fastest qualifier in the non top six and I didn't break 3m 40s.
"The weather was a factor.
"I ran the exact race that I wanted to execute I just wasn't able to finish it off, and now I think I want to go off and throw up somewhere," he said.

The winner of Willis' heat Mehdi Baala of France in 3m 38.65s was the overall fastest time from the three heats.

Gareth Hyett, did not make it into the semi-finals after finishing 11th in his heat in 3m 45.70s. Hyett ran at the back of the leading bunch that went through the first lap in 61.17s, the 800m in 2m 4.75s and the 1200m in 3m 1.88s. Despite running the final 200m in 27.5s, Hyett was unable to make any impression over the final 100m.


Murray McKinnon
Communications Advisor
Athletics New Zealand
0274 806086
murray@mckinnon.co.nz

smartmailpro.co.nz