Athletics: Outstanding effort by Vili at World Cup

Valerie Vili seen here competing at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne earlier this year. Picture / Brett Phibbs

A marvellous effort by shot putter Valerie Vili saw New Zealand athletes contribute significantly to the Oceania cause at the World Cup of Athletics in Greece today.

Vili's gold medal capped a fine performance by the New Zealand contingent.

One of the Oceania team captains, Vili won the shot put with an effort of 19.87m, ahead of Russia's Olga Ryabinkina with 19.54m and the Americas team's Yumileidi Cumba, of Cuba, who threw 19.12m to nab the bronze.

Vili, who has a best throw this season of 20.20m, won the silver medal at the IAAF world athletics final in Germany a week ago.

Vili was delighted with her effort.

"I'm definitely happy," she told Radio Sport.

"My training has been going well and me and my coach (Kirsten Hellier) are progressing pretty good.

"That shows in my performances out in the field. It's all going fantastically well."

Her performance topped the bronze medal won yesterday in the 1500m by Nick Willis.

In a slow race Willis recorded a time of three minutes 54.76 seconds, 2sec behind the winner Alex Kipchirchir, of Kenya, and more than 20sec outside his New Zealand record.

Ivan Heshko, of Ukraine, was second in 3min 53.33sec.

Willis led through the 400m in 1min 07.3sec, the 800m in 2min 19.2sec and the 1200m in 3min 15.9sec.

"I knew that Kipchirchir and Heshko were the two best runners in the race and when they went past me on the last lap I just had to be patient and make sure I was in the right place to hold the rest of the field off," Willis said.

United States-based New Zealand middle distance runner Kimberley Smith finished fourth in the 5000m today.

Smith was well back of the winner, Ethiopian Meseret Defar, running for Africa.

Defar posted a time of 14min 39.11sec, with silver medallist Liliya Shobukhova, of Russia, recording 15min 05.33sec. Kayoko Fukushi, of Japan, was third in 15min 06.69sec.

Smith had a time of 15min 12.15sec.

The World Cup, held every four years, involves continental teams Oceania, Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe, plus the United States, the host country and the top two teams from the European Cup -- this year France and Russia in the men's events and Russia and Poland in the women's.

The US won the men's competition and Russia the women's.

- NZPA