KEY POINTS:
In the final hours before she became an Olympic champion, Valerie Vili was trying her best to chill out.
She flicked on a movie - GI Jane, hardly the most relaxing choice, it must be said - read a book and played cards.
She read good luck messages on the board at the athletes village - anything to keep her mind sharp and focused, but not wound up. Even when she stood in the call room with the other competitors for the Olympic shot put final early yesterday, the 23-year-old South Aucklander was mature beyond her years.
"Everybody was just doing their own warm ups at the back and when we came into the call room I had a big yack to everybody, doing those eyebrow raises and smiling and saying, 'howzit'?" Vili said yesterday.
"People sometimes perceive us as being really 'rar, rar, rar, rar' in the callroom. But when we're in there we're laxed out a bit and when we get back in the arena, that's when the game face goes back on."
And what a game face Vili brought to Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium.
Even before the competition began, the world champion made it clear she was in charge, laying down the law to the officials about when it was her time to warm-up and bouncing and springing around her competitors.
Then she let fly with her first throw, a personal best 20.56m. No one else got close all night. She strung together four more throws over 20m, a mark only one opponent could manage all night.
Natallia Mikhnevich's 20.28m effort secured the silver ahead of her fellow Belarussian, the world's number-one ranked thrower Nadzeya Ostapchuk, who claimed the bronze with a last round 19.86m.
Vili said she had gone out with a deliberate mindset, aiming to dominate the other throwers and set the standard right from the start.
"It's very important to be mentally strong when you are out in the competition arena. You've done all the physical things, it comes down to the mental focus. You've got to get in there and focus on yourself and get the job down.
"You've put in the hours, lifted the weights, thrown the shots, done the drills and it's just getting out there and doing it.
"Last year at the world championships I had my best series ever and I was able to have my best series ever again."
Ostapchuk, who many in the international media had picked to win the gold because of her form this year, struggled all night and looked distracted. Afterwards, Ostapchuk said she had failed to acclimatise to Beijing's heat and had problems with cramp in her right leg. "In such difficult conditions, I'm happy with my bronze medal," she said.
She said she was not surprised by Vili's golden effort. "Frankly speaking, we were expecting a good performance from Valerie and my coach guessed her result. He said Valerie would do her shot put 20.20 - 20.50m."
Miknevich, whose husband won a bronze in the men's event on Friday night, said that right from the qualifying round it was obvious how well prepared Vili was. Vili did not even need to throw the last round, instead running across the track to the horror of Chinese officials and hugging her coach and mentor, Kirsten Hellier, who had been in the stands with her husband Pat Hellier.
"Kirsten and I share a lot of things," Vili said. "We're really good friends, and we make a great team as far as athlete:coach is concerned. She knows what gets me going. It's been 10 years and she has been stuck with me and I've been stuck with her and it seems something is working. I'm just so thankful she is able to help me."
With the New Zealand flag draped around her shoulders she was also able to find her sister, Viviene, and niece, Amco, in the crowd.
