KEY POINTS:
New Zealand shot putter Valerie Vili has been ranked the world's No 1 womens shot putter by the authoritative American Track and Field athletics magazine.
Vili won gold with a record 19.66m at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March, and ended the season with an outstanding 20.20m best to rank second in the world.
She won silver at the IAAF world athletics final in Stuttgart in September, beaten only by Belarussian Natalya Khoroneko (19.81m).
Vili then won the athletics World Cup shot put in Athens a week later, putting 19.87m to down Russia's Olga Ryabinkina (19.54m).
The British Athletics Weekly 2006 annual review's panel of experts also ranked Vili No 1 in the shot put for 2006.
Five other New Zealanders were ranked in the top 40 in the world last year, headed by Beatrice Faumuina's 13th in the discus throw.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Nick Willis is 14th in the 1500m, while Kate McIlroy makes 14th in the 3000m steeplechase.
United States-based runner Kimberley Smith was ranked 22nd in the 5000m and Stuart Farquhar 29th in the javelin throw. The New Zealand 4 x 100m relay team were 27th in the world.
Faumuina threw 57.37m in her opening discus throw of the season at Hamilton's Porritt Stadium.
Conditions were not ideal, with Faumuina having to contend with a difficult north easterly wind.
"It was tough conditions, it was like throwing into a brick wall," said Faumuina.
It was the first competition for Faumuina since her fourth placing at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games last March.
- NZPA
