Athletics: Adams' Olympic dream turns to dust

OLYMPIA - Valerie Adams crumbled emotionally and physically amid the ruins at ancient Olympia today, but was soon consoled by the undeniable fact that time is on her side.

New Zealand's 19-year-old shot putter bade farewell to her maiden Olympic Games teary-eyed after missing the cut for the medal round by just 3cm when the finals field was shorn from 12 to eight.

Comfortably placed in fourth after an opening round heave of 18.56m, the 1.93m tall Aucklander's powers then diminished as the feared "meltemi" wind gathered intensity, transforming her target area into a dust bowl of Olympic proportions.

As the breeze picked up, so too did the performances of her peers, and suddenly with one of three rounds remaining she clung perilously to a top eight position.

An anxious Adams, who fouled her second throw and managed just 17.93m with her last, sat powerless in the athletes area, a stone's throw from the circle as rival after rival reeled her in.

Fourth, became sixth, became seventh ... ultimately she finished ninth.

Central American champion Misleydis Gonzalez delivered the killer blow, willing the steel ball to 18.59m with her final throw.

For the Cuban her last-ditch effort capped an impressive transformation.

She had qualified 11th after the preliminaries and her first attempt of 17.33m hardly set the alarm bells clanging.

Gonzalez next registered 18.25m, and unfortunately for the former dual junior world champion her best was yet to come.

Adams was locked in reverse after the interval and she never threatened her personal best of 18.96m.

After qualifying fifth this morning (18.79m), in tranquil, cooler conditions, she could not reproduce the form that made her the faintest of chances for a medal.

"I'm 19, I'm the youngest in the field ... what can you expect?

"I got here and I did the best I could and that was it," Adams said as the tears welled.

Athletics team manager Tony Rogers predicted the teenager could wear the silver fern at as many as five Olympics, and Adams, composure regained, conceded this was not a bad place to start.

"It's been fantastic being here for my first Olympics. To make the final and being given the chance to compete in Olympia itself has just been amazing and I think that experience will help me big time."

Neither Adams nor her coach and confidante Kirsten Hellier would use the heat and dust as an excuse.

The untimely intervention of appendicitis five weeks ago was a bigger impediment.

"Today was a reflection of competition fitness," Hellier explained.

"She just hasn't competed enough.

"To do what she's done to make the Olympic final and finish ninth ... yeah she's pissed that she missed it by 3cm but I'm so proud of her.

"She's up against ladies based in Europe that have had multiple competitions. You can see their fitness and zing and their power into each throw is there.

"Val was lacking that, she got appendicitis and you can't do anything about that."

After the operation Adams was confined to a single major build-up tournament in Austria on August 2 where she threw 18.55m.

As Adams trooped off the arena Russian conqueror Irina Korzhanenko -- eight years her senior -- added the Olympic gold to her European crown by an emphatic margin.

Her third throw of 21.06m was the longest recorded in 2004 -- and the first to exceed the 21m mark.

Cuban Yumileida Cumba took the silver with 19.59m, pipping bronze medallist German Nadine Kleinert by 4cm.

The preliminary round's top qualifier Nadezhda Ostapchuk from Belarus also faltered when the heat was applied, dropping to fifth.

Adams, who was welcomed to the arena by the semblance of a haka, admitted she had a better appreciation of Olympic idealism after spending four days near the relics of Games past.

"I got here not knowing much about it all -- but walking just through the archway and down the thoroughfare is just an incredible feeling," she reflected, before heading down that glorious pathway one last time.

- NZPA