KEY POINTS:
For Valerie Vili, there was no decision to make: fly to Christchurch, get glammed up and appear at a dinner for the Halberg Awards, or strut her stuff on an athletics track in Auckland.
"Why wouldn't I want to compete here?" she said.
Vili usually trundles the world, competing in massive stadiums with only her coach Kirsten Hellier for company. But last night she was competing in front of 60 family and friends, and a crowd of about 2000 at the Douglas Stadium in Waitakere, sharing with them a world class performance and her winning of the supreme prize in the Halberg Awards.
Clutching the Halberg trophy, which she jokingly said she thought she could melt down into one of her 4kg shot puts, she said: "This is fantastic and I adore it."
Live television links from the awards dinner in Christchurch were beamed into the stadium, which erupted when her win was announced.
"It was pretty fantastic that I got to share my success with real athletics people in an environment I'm used to."
Vili planned to celebrate with her husband, Bertrand, and their family and friends by having a meal, although no flash celebration was on the cards.
"Somebody made a joke my sister and husband were going to take me to Subway."
Vili was also able to enjoy Hellier picking up the coach of the year award. "I was totally over the moon and so happy. Athletics is a very individual sport and it can get lonesome but we make a good team."
Hellier said she was honoured and continued to enjoy working with her charge, whom she has taken to the top of the world over the past 10 years. "We've been together now longer than most marriages, probably," she said.
Vili headed off last year's winner, world rowing champion Mahe Drysdale, and the winning men's coxless four from last year's World Rowing Championships.
She has enjoyed a stellar year with the shot put, winning the world championships in Osaka and becoming only the second New Zealander to win a senior world track and field title, following Beatrice Faumuina, who won the discus in 1997.
But 2007 had its fair share of difficult times with the death of her beloved father Sidney, from stomach cancer, and a challenging recovery from shoulder surgery.
Drysdale was named Sportsman of the Year, the men's coxless four was Team of the Year, and rower Emma Twigg, who won the world under-23 single sculls title, was presented with the Westpac Emerging Talent Award.
Drysdale felt no disappointment at missing out on consecutive supreme awards.
"Any of these awards you get, you take as a bonus." Two former champion marathon runners, Lorraine Moller and Mike Ryan, were also inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame.
