Also yesterday, cyclist Hayden Roulston bagged silver at the velodrome while the Shunyi rowing course returned two bronzes, to illness-stricken sculler Drysdale and pair George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle.
Vili strode onto a packed Bird's Nest with a menacing air, and terrified the life out of them with her first shot put.
She threw further than she ever had, 20.56m, and even two of her lesser throws would have been enough to win. Belarussian Natallia Mikhnevich claimed silver with 20.28m.
Vili bolted towards the stands and an ecstatic embrace with her coach Kirsten Hellier, then cavorted around the outside of the track with a New Zealand flag.
She was New Zealand's first Olympic throwing gold medallist, and just the second field athlete after long jumper Yvette Williams in 1952.
While Vili dominated, the Evers-Swindell twins replicated their Athens gold by the barest possible margin -- 0.01 seconds.
They joined runner Peter Snell, equestrian Mark Todd and kayakers Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald in defending an Olympic title.
"This time we were total underdogs, it is a bit of disbelief, actually," Caroline said.
The twins overcame 18 months of injury woes, hashed results and even form uncertainty coming to Beijing, but they did it tough.
With 500m to row, Germany still had 1.65 seconds on the New Zealanders, but the black singlets descended like an avalanche in the last 100m to grab an unlikely win.
Drysdale gave arguably the bravest performance of the day after he led by a boatlength with 500m to go, then faded behind rival Olaf Tufte of Norway as the effects of a stomach bug took hold.
A medical crew was still with a vomiting Drysdale on the water 20 minutes after he crossed the line.
Twaddle and Bridgewater were nearly six seconds off a cracking pace after 500m, but finished hard to grab a podium spot below veteran Australians Drew Ginn and Duncan Free.
Rob Waddell missed a second Olympic gold when he and Nathan Cohen finished fourth.
Roulston joined Sarah Ulmer and Gary Anderson as New Zealand's only Olympic track cycling medallists as he powered to silver at Laoshan in the 4000m individual pursuit.
The Ashburton cyclist was no match for raging British favourite Bradley Wiggins in the gold medal ride, but ensured silver earlier when he demolished Taylor Phinney of the United States by more than seven seconds.
Roulston's teammate Alison Shanks, in the women's individual pursuit, topped a good night at the velodrome by booking a bronze medal ride tomorrow against Lesya Kalitovska of Ukraine.
In Qingdao, the yachties have medals in their sights with Jo Aleh storming to the lead at the halfway point of the Laser Radial class with her third consecutive second placing.
Star crew Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams were also poised, sailing to a ninth then a third to sit one point behind fleet leaders the United States after three races.
- NZPA
