KEY POINTS:
It was deja vu for New Zealand athletes Valerie Vili and Nick Willis, who matched their Beijing Olympic medals at the world athletics finals in Stuttgart, Germany yesterday.
World and Olympic champion Vili won a comfortable gold in the women's shot put while Willis surged home into third place in the 1500m final.
Neither reached the standards of a month earlier although Vili didn't have to in her final event of a stellar season.
As with Beijing, her best throw was her first, reaching 19.69m, nearly 1m shorter than her Olympic mark and Oceania record of 20.56m.
She followed up with 19.54m, 19.53m and 19.44m in the four-round format.
"I wasn't happy with my first shot, it was the furthest one but not the best," Vili said.
"I always want to be better and better."
Nadine Kleinert from Germany, who has cleared 20m previously, managed 19.42m in second place while nobody else in the eight-woman field cleared 19m.
Vili was unbeaten in all her 11 meets this year, with her last defeat coming at the same event in Stuttgart last year.
Meanwhile, Willis claimed his bronze in a time of 3m 38.22s.
The race was won by Kenyan Haron Keitany in 3m 37.92s, with compatriot and Olympic silver medallist Asbel Kiprop only 0.01s behind.
Just as he did in Beijing, Willis improved from fifth to third over the final 50m in a blanket finish.
Veteran New Zealand athlete Beatrice Faumuina was invited to compete in Stuttgart but did not start.
Meanwhile, New Zealand's king of the mountain Jonathan Wyatt won his sixth world mountain running title in Switzerland yesterday.
Wyatt scaled new heights with an outstanding run at Crans-Montana, covering the 12km race, which ascended 1046m, in 55m 03s, to beat Martin Toroitich of Uganda by 13s.
Ahmet Arslan of Turkey was some distance behind in third, in a time of 55m 26s.
Wyatt won his previous titles in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2005.
He didn't compete last year and was narrowly beaten in 2006 after a dog bite incident in training two days before the event.
New Zealand's Callum Harland was 69th in 1h 2m 04s and Glenn Hughes 74th in 1h 2m 23s.
Anna Frost was 10th in the women's 8.33km race, which ascended 733m, in 47m 35s.
Andrea Mayr of Austria won in 43m 57s.
Daniel Jones, 17, was 22nd in the junior men's race over the same distance in 44m 50s.
- NZPA
