Vili, McLellan impress in Canberra 26. January 08

Canberra, Australia – New Zealand’s visiting World Champion Valerie Vili confirmed her Olympic title intentions when she launched the shot 19.72m to win the Australia Day national series meet in the Australian capital today.

In so doing, the jovial but physically imposing 192cm and 121kg Maori also sent a message across the seas to Belorussia’s Nadezhda Ostapchuk, the Osaka silver medallist, who leads the world this new year with her performance last week indoors in Minsk where she threw 1cm further than Vili’s Canberra best.

Other than Vili and Athens Olympic bronze medallist Ostapchuk themselves, only two others bettered the Kiwi’s massive Canberra distance during 2007.

"I’m in pretty full-on training at the moment so anything over 19.50m is good,” Vili said. “I’m looking forward to the Sydney Grand Prix (16 February) and (the 86th Australian Championships in) Brisbane (28 Feb – 1 March) before the World Indoors in Valencia in March (7-9).”

Another New Zealand thrower, Stuart Farquhar demonstrated his capacity to reach the Beijing Olympic final in the Javelin Throw with a solid 83.23m victory in Canberra over Queenslander Jarrod Bannister (82.60m) clear of NSW’s William Hamlyn-Harris (74.96m) and Korea’s Sang-Jin Chung (74.89m) in a good quality field.

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