KEY POINTS:
"See that last put, that was for Dad."
And with that, New Zealand's Valerie Vili explained how she became just the second New Zealander to win a world athletics championships gold medal with a staggering final throw in the shot-put final in Osaka last night.
Vili's father died recently and the 22-year-old athlete dedicated the win to him.
"This means everything. Hard work, lots of hours. This year I've had a s*** year. I've had surgery on my shoulder and my Dad passed away."
She had trailed in second place behind Nadzeya Ostapchuck of Belarus throughout the final, nudging closer to the leader's 20.04m benchmark with throws of 19.89m then 19.95m.
It looked like silver for the New Zealander with one throw to go, but a delay forced by semifinals in the women's 100m gave Vili almost five minutes to prepare for that final hurl.
She came out and threw 20.54m, setting the challenge for the Belarussian.
Her response was almost as staggering, landing the put at 20.48m.
Vili's coach Kirsten Hellier said the victory proved what a "bloody good performer" Vili was.
"We're incredibly proud of her. It's been nine years we've waited for this and Beijing [Olympics] next year. Bring it on."
Vili's best previous result at a senior world championships was a bronze at Helsinki in 2005. She is also the Commonwealth Games champion.
Beatrice Faumuina is the only other New Zealander to win gold at the world championships when she won the discus in 1997 at Athens.
It took just one throw from Vili to qualify for the final. Needing a put of 18.35m or better, she sent the ball of steel out to an impressive 19.45m, the best of the 12 who qualified.
Ostapchuck had thrown 20.34m this year but scraped into the final 12 by only 4cm with 18.23m, and Petra Lammert of Germany (20.04m this year) qualified with 18.72m.
New Zealander Kimberley Smith came away from the track after finishing fifth in the 10,000m disappointed at not winning a medal but happy with her placing.
Smith was in with a chance for the bronze medal with two circuits of the 25-lap race left. The defending champion, Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia, had the gold medal for the taking on the last lap and former 5000m world record holder Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey was well clear in second.
This left Smith, Kara Goucher of the United States and Joanne Pavey of Great Britain to battle it out for the bronze.
Goucher challenged first and made a break that she held to the finish and Pavey had the measure of Smith going into the final lap.
Running in extremely hot, humid conditions, Dibaba recorded a slow 31m 55.41s, beating Abeylegesse by 4s.
Another 4s separated Goucher, Pavey and Smith, with Smith running 32m 6.89s.
Smith said it was hard to be so close and then fall short.
"It was there for the taking, the bronze medal. It was before the race and I knew that," she said.
"I felt the heat, but those girls have a strong kick. They're both faster 1500m runners than me.
"Jo Pavey is a really good runner and I look up to her, so to come one place behind her is pretty good, but it's very disappointing to come so close to a medal."
Smith said the race was pretty slow at the start, with lots of pushing and shoving.
"Fifth place is very good, I mean I know that. Not many New Zealanders have gone quite fifth on the track. I don't know when the last was, so I mean I'm happy with that, but it's very disappointing."
Nick Willis qualified for the semifinal of the 1500m today, after finishing seventh in his heat. He ran 3m 40.18s - the fastest of the extra six fastest qualifying times. Other New Zealanders in action today are Faumuina and Michael Aish in the 10,000m final.
