The scream that rent the humid night air in the Nagai stadium was one of unbounded joy as Valerie Vili improved from bronze in 2005 to take gold for New Zealand. With a last ditch heave in round six she snatched victory from defending champion, Nadyesa Ostapchuk, with bronze going to Germany’s Nadine Kleinert.

As she left the track she blew a kiss at the camera and mouthed “I love you Mum and Dad.” Both are deceased, her father passing away this year.

Vili’s 20.54 represented an improvement of 34cm on her previous best from last year and moved her into first place in the world this year as well as doubling her country’s gold medal tally in the history of the IAAF World championships. 

For an event that had provided little excitement over the five rounds, the finale was even more explosive as Vili summoned up all her reserves for that one final push for glory.

There had been a delay before she threw as the women’s 100m quarter finals got under way after two false starts. But while it exasperated Kleinert, it seemed to relax Vili who was already secure in silver medal position. Her winning distance was also a new Commonwealth and Oceania record and the 18th national record of her career. 

Last of the finalists to qualify in a below-par morning session, but first up to the ring in the final and Ostapchuk looked a different athlete as she pushed the shot out to a no-nonsense 20.04.

Second in the world this year after her 20.03 in Cairns, her final warm-up for Osaka, Vili responded with a respectable 19.89. But if she was going to win she would have to beat her season’s best. 

In third at the end of the opening round, Germany’s Petra Lammert threw a decent enough 19.33 and looked happy enough to go into the bronze medal position.

Kleinert looked happier with her second throw that was a season’s best of 19.45, enough for her to overtake her compatriot and move into bronze.

Round three ended with no-change at the top, with the two Germans occupying three and four as out went the two Cubans, reigning Olympic champion Yumileidi Cumba and this year’s PanAmerican champion, Misleidys Gonzalez. Other causalties were the Russian champion, Ana Omerova and the former Olympic and World champion from Belarus, Korolchyk-Pravalinska.

There was no change in round four for Lammert, just a frustrated look at her coach, but Kleinert increased her mark by 32cm for a season’s best 19.77 to put Vili under some pressure. The New Zealander responded, however, with a 19.95 - but the buffer over the German had been reduced from 29cm to 18.

The final round saw China’s Ling Li overtake Lammert and go into fourth.
Before Kleinert could take her final throw the 100m delays started and that served as a backdrop to the dramatic denouement.

The fireworks started as Vili stepped into the ring after yet another delay for a second false start at the other end of the track. It did not phase her.

To someone with less mettle it might have been the end. But Ostapchuk is made of sterner stuff. After taking the lead in round one, she had been lacklustre since and three of her five subsequent efforts had been fouls. But she roused herself for one supreme effort. In the event it was not enough, but 20.48 was a season’s best for her and a more than dignified riposte to seeing her title snatched away at the death.
 
Osaka 2007 News Team/mb