Valerie Vili - 20.57m in Sydney (© Getty Images)
In her first competition of the season Olympic and World Shot Put champion Valerie Adams set a New Zealand all-comers record of 20.33m at Mt. Smart Stadium in Auckland on Sunday (27) while Nick Willis captured a quality victory in the mile in Wellington on Saturday (26).
Adams' effort added eight centimetres to her All-comers record set at Waitakere in 2009 and equalled in Hamilton in February last year. She holds the New Zealand national record of 21.07m set in Thessoloniki, Greece in 2009.
Adams was competing in the Auckland championships, after the meeting that she was down to compete at in Christchurch on Saturday evening was cancelled.
“I’m pretty pleased with that, this week has been really hectic, devastating earthquake in Christchurch and I was sort of building up for the Christchurch meeting. But that’s the way it goes and you just got to deal with it,” she said.
“It’s good to come out here and crack 20 metres; that was my goal to break the resident record, I have just one more comp in New Zealand and then I’m out of here,” said Adams.
She is off to Melbourne next weekend and then to the Sydney meeting and returning for the New Zealand championships in Dunedin at the end of March before heading to Switzerland.
Willis receives Olympic silver medal, helps assist with earthquake relief
In Wellington, Olympic 1500m silver medallist Willis overcame emotion in running a well-paced sub-four minute mile.
An hour after finally being presented with his Beijing Olympic silver medal, and in a meeting he organised as a fund-raiser for the victims of the Christchurch earthquake, Willis clocked 3:58.37 into a stiff Wellington southerly.
The minor places were filled by Willis' American training mates. Will Leer was second in a time of 3:58.80, and Brandon Bethke third in 4:00.04. Hamish Carson was fourth in 4:10.00.
Another training partner, top-ranked American middle distance runner Alan Webb, who earlier in the evening ran the 800m, helped the early peacemaking as the field reeled off 60-second laps after a 58-second lap for the opening 400m.
Willis, tucked in behind, was given a luxury ride as Webb pulled out with 600m to go and Leer took over at the front.
With 200m to go, Willis eased into the lead, wound up the tempo and edged out Leer in the last 50 metres.
"The first 300m felt awesome but then we hit the home straight with a tail wind. The pacemaker really accelerated, and that didn't feel good on the legs," he said afterwards. "I thought maybe the emotion of the occasion had made me fatigued, but I was able to recompose."
Willis was particularly grateful at the load taken up by his American training partners.
"They told me after the medal ceremony they'd be willing to take the lead after the rabbit pulled out, because of all the emotion," he said. "I owe a lot to them that I didn't have to go out and make that sacrifice at the front. That really helped me to have the confidence that, despite the fatigue and tiredness, I'd be there for the last 100m and then it was just whoever had the most at the end."
The Lower Hutt runner was due to finally be presented with his silver medal at the international track meeting scheduled for Christchurch on Saturday evening. But with the event cancelled because of Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude earthquake, International Olympic Committee member Barry Maister instead presented Willis with his medal in an emotional ceremony at the hastily organised meeting.
Upwards of 2000 people attended the meeting and $20,100 was collected for the Christchurch relief fund appeal.
Athletics New Zealand for the IAAF
