The pictures above show an ecstatic Valerie Vili celebrating after she had dramatically moved into the gold medal position with her 6th and final attempt in the womens Shot Put final at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka. Nadezhda Ostapchuk seemed certain to win the gold medal, having led from round 1 with her effort of 20.04m, before Vili's closing put of 20.54m won her the gold in fantastic fashion. A determined effort from Ostapchuk nearly snatched the gold back from Valerie's grasp with the very last put of the competition, but her 20.48m attempt fell 6cm short of Vili's mark. Valerie later commented: "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. It was an intense competition, Nadezhda Ostapchuk she's a great competitor, have a lot of respect for her and she came out and 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."
.
| |
| Women's Shot Put final. 2007 World Athletics Championships |
| 1. Valerie VILI |
|
NZL |
|
20.54 |
| 2. Nadezhda OSTAPCHUK |
|
BLR |
|
20.48 |
| 3. Nadine KLEINERT |
|
GER |
|
19.77 |
| 4. Ling LI |
|
CHN |
|
19.38 |
| 5. Petra LAMMERT |
|
GER |
|
19.33 |
| 6. Meiju LI |
|
CHN |
|
18.83 |
| 7. Lijiao GONG |
|
CHN |
|
18.66 |
| 8. Chiara ROSA |
|
ITA |
|
18.39 |
| |