KEY POINTS:
World shot put champion Valerie Vili produced an emphatic performance in her opening competition of the season at the John Walker Night of Miles meeting in Auckland last night.
In her first outing at home since finishing second at the world athletic grand prix final in Stuttgart in September - shortly after winning the world title in Osaka, Japan, in August - Vili opened with 19.18m followed by 19.12m.
Saving her best for last, she rifled the shot 19.24m in her sixth and final effort.
Although short of her national record of 20.54m set in Osaka, Vili said last night's effort was an indication she is on target for the Australian grand prix series beginning next month.
"That's the best ever series result-wise in first up competition coming off a break," Vili said.
"I'm pretty happy with this, being my first competition since Stuttgart. I'm quite happy with how it started and I definitely know that there's more there.
"Training has been going good, this competition hasn't really been targeted, but it was a competition that we had in mind as a last blow out before Christmas.
"I'm pretty happy with the end result and I look forward to heading over to Noumea on Saturday," she added.
Vili will compete in Canberra and Sydney next month and will next appears in Auckland at the IAAF Permit Meeting at Waitakere on February 19.
Vili's husband, Bertrand, was in top form in the discus event last night.
He was set a personal best and New Caledonian record of 62.13m.
Patrick Hellier won the men's shot put with 15.32m and was second in the discus with 48.70m.
Tereapii Tapoki threw 56.53m to win the women's discus.
Fiji's Niko Verekauta who attends the IAAF high performance training centre on the North Shore won the invitational 400m in 47.38secs, beating James Dolphin (48.02secs) and Moses Kamut (48.78secs).
Matt Brown won a sprint double with wind assisted times of 6.87secs for 60m and 10.51secs over 100m.
Auckland's Matthew Mildenhall won the annual John Walker junior mile in four minutes, 11.98secs, clearing out from the field mid-way through the race to beat fast finishing Simon Rogers of Wellington.
Rogers clocked 4min 13.99s, with Corey Casey also of Wellington third in 4min 18.58secs.
Aniel Smith won the senior mile in 4min 14.59secs while Nikki Hamblin recorded 4min 59.09secs to win the junior women's mile.
Stephen Lett won the men's 10,000m senior title in 32min 46.41secs, with the women's title going to Maria Akesson in 37min 39.19secs.
- NZPA
