KEY POINTS:
Valerie Vili has come a long way in nine years - from the biggest kid at school taking up the shot-put, to the world champion.
With the love and thoughts of her parents, who have both passed away, Vili sent her athletic career into another sphere with an
explosive final-round throw of 20.54m for the world title and an Oceania and New Zealand national record.
"I lost my dad in May through cancer," said Vili. "I was in Japan at the time on a competition and I made it home a few hours before he passed away. I had time to say goodbye."
The 22-year-old said the first five rounds were great competition.
"But on the last round my coach just turned around and said to me, 'This is yours' and 'Do this one for your dad'.
"All I could feel was just the emotions and tense nerves, but all I could think about was getting to the middle and just smacking the s*** out of it just as hard and fast as I could.
"I had nothing to lose but everything to gain. I was very happy and very ecstatic to get an Oceania and national record while doing so."
Defending champion Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus led the competition from the start with a put of 20.04m in round one. Vili sent the ball of steel out to 19.89m.
The positions stayed the same to the sixth and final round.
With the second round of the women's 100m heats taking place, there was a delay before Vili could step up for the crucial throw. But the waiting seemed to make the bronze medallist at the last world championships all the more determined.
"Having to stop a few times for the start of the sprint races pissed me off a bit, but in the end it felt so good releasing that final throw," Vili said.
"I had everyone cheering for me, other competitors rooting for me, a little group of New Zealanders on one corner and other foreigners cheering for me," said Vili.
Struck by Vili's 20.54m effort, Ostapchuk, the last thrower, wasted no time stepping into the circle to pop out a throw of 20.48m.
Vili was world youth shot-put champion in Debrecen, Hungary, in 2001 and world junior champion in Kingston, Jamaica, in 2002. She has competed at the last two world championships, finishing fifth in Paris in 2003 and third in Helsinki in 2005. Last year, Vili won the Commonwealth Games gold medal in the shot-put with 19.66m, was second in the world athletics final and a week later, in September, won the shot-put at the world cup competition in Athens.
At the 2004 Athens Olympic Games Vili was eighth, with 18.56m.
She becomes only the third athlete in the world to win world titles at youth, junior and now senior level, joining 400m hurdler Jana Rawlinson of Australia and pole-vault world record-holder Yelene Isinbaeva of Russia.
Vili said athletics had kept her focused and able to cope with the loss of her parents.
"I was the biggest kid at school and the teachers said to do it and I did. I really got into it when I started breaking school records. And when my mum died when I was 15 it helped me cope with it and got me through it."
Vili said the victory would not change her personally although her profile would be higher than for winning the Commonwealth Games title.
"Valerie will still be Val. I'll still be a happy chappie, a jokey person."
Prime Minister Helen Clark, sent Vili congratulations on a brilliant performance, saying all New Zealand would be very proud of her.
