Vili completes NZ's golden day

Five medals in the space of a few hours

To the tune of "Poi E" blaring in the background at Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium Valerie Vili swept her gold-tinted locks across her forehead, grabbed a New Zealand flag and sent the crowd into a frenzy as she capped the most remarkable day in NZ Olympic history.

Her shot put gold medal, which was as emphatic as Vili herself, gave New Zealand two gold medals, a silver and a bronze. The Evers-Swindell twins won the other gold as they successfully defended their double sculls Olympic wreath from Athens in 2004 by .01 of a second.

The contrast was marked, the twins having to wait what felt an age to have their victory confirmed while Vili didn't even need her last throw; in fact she didn't really need more than one.

"It is so freaking amazing I can't explain what is going through my head right now," an ecstatic Vili said on TVNZ shortly afterwards.

When her victory was confirmed, Vili briefly threw China's security services into panic as she diced with a track race to sprint across the Olympic arena and celebrate with her coach, friends and family.

But like her rivals, none of the many security staff were able to stop the powerful Kiwi from revelling in her emphatic gold medal triumph.

It is has been more than 50 years since a New Zealand woman won an Olympic track and field gold medal, going back to Yvette Williams in 1952.

It was also the first time New Zealand has won five medals in a day and leaped the country to 14th on the medal table.

The previous best New Zealand one-day haul was four medals - all bronze - in Seoul 20 years ago, via swimmers Anthony Mosse and Paul Kingsman and rowers Eric Verdonk, Lynley Hannen and Nikki Payne.

Vili tries to make a statement with her first throw to intimidate her opponents and last night her opening effort was simply magnificent, arcing through the air and endangering the judges as it flew to 20.56m - the best throw of her life on the day she needed it most.

Vili said in competitions such as this it was important to put the pressure "right from the world go and being fourth up I was able to do that."

It was New Zealand's first track and field gold medal at the Olympics since John Walker's 1500m triumph in 1976 at Montreal.

Vili grew confident as throw upon throw sailed past the 20m mark. After her second (20.40m) she delivered a double first pump and after the third (20.26m) she turned to the crowd and gestured as if to say "look at me".

Despite her Belarussian archrivals Nadzeya Ostapchuk and Natalie Mikhnevich gradually improving from awful to average to threatening as the competition wore on, they couldn't get near the girl from South Auckland, who added the Olympic gold to her world championship triumph of last year.

Between throws, Vili sat quietly in a chair as far removed from the action as possible, reacting only when second Belarussian Natalie Mikhnevich recorded 20.28m. Vili followed with throws of 20.40m and 20.26m and was delighted with her consistency.

In contrast, Ostapchuk was shaking her head in frustration and disappointment as she couldn't get the 4kg ball past 19m. She only just made the halfway cut after which the top-eight got three more throws.

While Vili's fourth throw was just 20m, no-one else was making headway until Ostapchuk finally approached her best effort with 19.86m at the second-last attempt to move into third.

To set matters straight, Vili came out with another big effort of 20.52m and was revelling in her work.

She paced nervously as the final round got under way, watching as each rival fell short of what was needed to make her take one more throw.

She didn't need to though, and then she danced.

At just 23, Vili has the chance to join the greats of New Zealand Olympic history by pressing on for another gold in London in 2012. And it could be that the Evers-Swindells do the same.

After their win they hinted they may race through to the next games - at which point they will be 33 - and chase an unprecedented hat-trick of Olympic gold medals.

They revealed their outstanding coach Richard Tonks believes they still have more heroics left in them yet.

"Richard reckons we have got a couple more good years in us, but we'll see how it goes,'' a beaming Caroline said after she and Georgina joined an exclusive club of Kiwi Olympians who have successfully defended their title.

Only Peter Snell, Mark Todd and kayak kings Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald had previously achieved the Evers-Swindells' feat.

The gold medal win coupled with two bronze medals: to a courageous Mahe Drysdale, who collapsed and fainted with dehydration and exhaustion after his single sculls, and to men's pair George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle.

The Evers-Swindells had to endure an excruciating wait immediately after a spectacular finish before judges declared they had won by the almost impossible margin of just 0.01s. Written off because of their poor lead-up results, the Evers-Swindells came with a sustained finish over the last 500m to nail the unheralded German pair Annekatrina Thiele and Christiane Huth with literally their last stroke.

An hour or so after the rowing frenzy cyclist Hayden Roulston joined the twins in proving his many doubters wrong.

The Ashburton cyclist won silver in the men's 4000m individual pursuit at the Laoshan velodrome, beaten by world champion Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain.

For Roulston, 27, it marked the end of a bumpy journey which included two brushes with the law and a health scare that had forced him into early retirement.

Roulston was close to tears as he stood on the podium with his silver medal around his neck; remarkable given that a year ago he'd been told to quit cycling or risk death because of a heart problem.

"It's pretty emotional," he said. "I gave it my best. There's definitely no regrets. To walk away with a silver, I'm pretty happy."

with NZPA

- © Fairfax NZ News