Athletics: Adams smashes own record

Valerie Adams. Photo / Brett Phibbs

In her first competition of the season Olympic and world shot put champion Valerie Adams set a fresh New Zealand allcomers and resident record of 20.33m at Mt Smart Stadium yesterday.

This added 8cm to her 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 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've just got to deal with it," she said.

"It's good to come out here and crack 20m; 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."

She is off to Melbourne next weekend and then to the Sydney meeting, returning for the New Zealand championships in Dunedin at the end of March before heading to Switzerland.

The world record of 22.63m was set by Natalya Lisovskaya of the Soviet Union in 1987.