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Olympic and world champion shot putter Valerie Vili heads a strong team of 11 New Zealanders confirmed today to contest the world athletics championships in Berlin next month.
Vili will defend the world shot put title she won in Osaka in 2007. It will be her fourth world championships - her first was in Paris in 2003 where she was fifth, followed up with a third two years later in Helsinki.
The 24-year-old has the top seven best performances in the world this year and leads the world rankings with her New Zealand national record of 20.69 metres set in Rio de Janeiro in May. The next best is Anna Avdeeva of Russia with 20.07m.
Earlier this month, Beijing Olympic 1500m bronze medalist Nick Willis withdrew from the team, unwilling to risk a premature return to action following hip surgery.
Among those confirmed on Friday was in-form middle distance runner Nikki Hamblin, who earlier this week impressed with a personal best by 1.21 seconds over 800m in Belgium when she ran 2min 00.90sec.
Hamblin will also contest the 1500m at Berlin world championships, which begin on August 15.
Kimberley Smith, who finished fifth over 10,000m at the 2007 world championships, will also run the 5000m in Berlin and has a speedy 14min 52.49sec over the distance from earlier this week to boost her claims.
Three athletes originally selected for the championships - Adrian Blincoe (5000m), James Dolphin (200m) and Rebecca Wardell (heptathlon) - have not been included in the final team, excluded as they hadn't reached the required standard to confirm their entry.
The team is: Michael Aish (overseas-based) marathon, Stuart Farquhar (Hamilton) javelin throw, Brent Newdick (Auckland) decathlon, Shireen Crumpton (Otago) marathon, Mary Davies (overseas-based) marathon, Fiona Docherty (overseas-based) marathon, Nikki Hamblin (Cambridge) 800m and 1500m, Andrea Miller (Otago) 100m hurdles, Kimberley Smith (overseas-based) 5000m and 10,000m, Valerie Vili (Auckland) shot put, Monique Williams (Tokoroa) 200m and 400m.
