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Valerie Vili displays her 2009 gold medal - Source: Reuters -
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Can you remember where you were on August the 16th 1977?
Me, I got out of my bed in Suva, Fiji, on a sunny Saturday morning and went for a walk. I had flown from New Zealand to commentate on the Fiji rugby team's game again the touring British Isles rugby team.
At a bustling local market place I stopped to look at the goods for sale. Behind a busy counter I heard a Fijian woman tell her friend how 'sad she was.' And that 'he was a great man' etc.
Eventually it emerged that in faraway Memphis, Tennessee Elvis Presley had collapsed in his bathroom and died. On its way around the world that shocking news had arrived in Fiji.
Elvis was only 42. None of us could comprehend it. Total strangers stopped what they were doing in that marketplace and found themselves chatting together about 'The King' and what an influence he had been on all of us.
Now fast forward; its 32 years later and with no connection between music and sport it looks like August the 16th is also going to go down as one of the great days of world sport.
So it is an indistinct link I know, but now New Zealanders will always remember that in 2009 New Zealand sport celebrated its third ever Athletics World Championship gold medal when Valerie Vili defended her world shot put title in Berlin.
And keep it going Keith, one year earlier, on August 16th 2008, in Beijing's Olympic Stadium she had also won a gold medal there.
Re-ascended the throne
The world might have lost Elvis on August 16th but our Val re-ascended her throne on that same day.
But in talking about 'Queen Valerie the first' it was sad in a way that in the Berlin stadium and on the TV coverage Valerie only had the limelight for about five minutes.
Yes, it was great to see her leaping about in victory again, smiling and waving in the manner we have come to know from these last few years. But only fleeting moments later the whole world swung away from her and its attention went over to probably the most amazing running feat ever seen.
Step aside Elvis - here comes a contender to be King, and one with an equally rare Christian name!
Usain Bolt of Jamaica not only won the 100 metres sprint title but more than that he blew away all his rivals in running a new world record of 9.58 seconds.
When you think that all world sprint records usually come down by increments of single 100ths of a second then his smashing of the old mark by eleven 100ths merits all the deep purple prose which will have the sportswriters reaching deep into their 'googles' for appropriately bountiful descriptions.
Me, I'll just say he was bloody amazing!
And he also won in Beijing last year, also on August 16th,
setting the 'old' world mark. Usain in 2009 would have beaten the
'old' Usain of 2008 by three strides!
Highest praise
But let's come back to our Valerie. She only deserves the highest world praise as well. In her event she has dominated since she came up slowly after her eighth placing at the Athens Olympics of 2004.
What I understand about throwing events is that not only is the winning of any event measured by the distance one can heave the iron ball out but also by the way one's sheer physical presence can tower above the other throwers and quite simply, put them off.
At Beijing last year in the Olympics we saw Valerie do just that wonderfully. She was drawn to throw last in round one (in the early rounds of athletics throwing events, the order of competing is always in alphabetical order) So Valerie paced around, making sure she was standing in the eye-line of the other 11 competitors. Misleydis Gonzalez of Cuba took the lead with 19.30 metres.
So everyone had thrown when Valerie, stripped off her tracksuit slowly and stepped into the circle. While her rivals sneaked nervous glances she stood imperiously for a moment, as if waiting for them all to sit up and take notice. We all held our collective breath. Then she swung into the speedy rhythm of her 'glide' throwing technique and the result was, as she said so colourfully later, that she 'smacked the crap' out of her first effort.
Out it sailed past 20.56 metres. It was the best she had ever done. You will remember it I'm sure as she jumped about with unbounded joy. And all her jumping was done in front of the other 11. In that moment their collective wills to win faded away into the hot Beijing night.
They all knew they could not beat that distance. None of them ever had. (Stretch your arms out wide each way and that was the 1.26 metres lead Valerie had on them from one throw!)
Really, that made it - game over. But just in case anyone did get stroppy in the field and 'pulled out a big one' in the later rounds Valerie stayed there in front of them, pouting, posing and preening. Her body language said simply to the world, 'I am the boss here.'
Our victorious Val didn't even have to throw the last round. In
cricketing terms she won her Olympic gold medal with an innings to
spare.
Seven best
In 2009 it was only marginally different. Going into the World Championship final this week Valerie had the seven best throws of the year. And nine of the best 11 marks.
She had extended her own personal best (her PB) out to 20.69 metres. Her rivals knew all that. So her supremacy was total.
But things can go wrong so of course she had to do the business before she could sing and dance. (And hug Kirsten Hellier, her coach of course)
It was slightly unnerving that this time though Valerie was slow away. She was only 5th after two rounds. But then came round three and she again went into 'smack' mode. The distance then was 'only' 20.25 but it got her into the lead. It was her fifth round effort of 'only' 20.44 metres which blew away all the others.
To underline her authority she eventually had the three best throws of the competition, and four of the best five. Second place went to Germany's Nadine Kleinert with 20.20 metres.
Being Valerie - the kid with such a sunny disposition - and again having retained her title by an innings, she even threw the last round when she didn't have to and it was the second best throw of the competition!
It wasn't domination - it was annililation.
Yes we have to say that across at the 100 metres track Usain Bolt was also great five minutes later - but let us keep the attention on New Zealand's Valerie Vili. She is astride her event just as Bolt is across his.
Val's PB of 20.69 is not a world record but there is, in some circles, heavy misgiving around Natalya Lisovskaya's 22-year old world mark of 22.63 metres.
So Valerie Vili is number one again across the world. She is New Zealand's first athlete to retain a world athletics title. And it all happened on August 16th!
Footnote 1: Don't forget too that Y.E.Yang, the compact little Korean golfer was also a breakthrough winner on this day. He beat Tiger Woods at golf's last major of the year, the PGA Championship. Yang thus became the first Asian player to win a 'Major'
Footnote 2: If you ask a Fijian sports follower about their greatest day in their sport, they might also say August 16th. Sure the world was saddened that Elvis had died but later that same day in 1977, after the markets had closed for the day, 25,000 packed into Buckhurst Park to see Fiji score perhaps their greatest 15-a-side rugby victory, beating the British Isles by 25-21.
