Just when this competition was getting going it ended. That as every thrower I have ever met will tell you is one of the many reasons why they all hate the four round format that takes place in the World Athletics Final.

Valerie Vili, the World and Olympic champion, has been without rival this year but no one’s reputation is teflon coated in sport, just ask high jumper Blanka Vlasic. Potential upsets to even the greatest athletes can be waiting in the wings of any stadium especially when athletes are tired at the end of a long season.

Though Vili led from round one with a 19.69m heave, and backed that up with 19.54, 19.53 and 19.44m efforts in the remaining rounds, this was not the New Zealander at her very best.

Therefore Nadine Kleinert’s 19.42 in the fourth round left us with a number of frustrating questions. Would Germany’s 2004 Olympic silver medallist who has a PB of 20.06 have improved further in a standard six throw competition…had she done so could Vili have counter attacked…would we then have witnessed a 20m put had the Olympic champion been sufficiently motivated when coming under pressure???

We witnessed two thirds of what could have been an interesting competition today.

No one else put beyond 19m. Cuba’s Misleydis Gonzalez was third with a best of 18.55m.

Vili has had a faultless year, after today she has taken 11 consecutive competition wins in 2008 (not including qualification rounds), her last loss indoors or out coming here in Stuttgart in the 2007 World Athletics Final. Her overall win streak now being 12 meets having finished off 2007 with a win in Auckland after the Final.

The 2008 World Indoor champion in an Area indoor record of 20.19m in Valencia, and the 2008 Olympic gold medallist with another Oceania best of 20.56 in Beijing, Vili is the global face of women's shot putting at present.

"I wasn't happy with my first shot, it was the furthest one but not the best," said Vili. "I always want to be better and better."

Chris Turner for the IAAF