Commonwealth Valerie Adams has a simple answer when asked what more she wants to achieve in her shot-putting career.

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Commonwealth Games: Adams just wants to throw further

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Sun, 10 Oct 2010

Commonwealth Games | Valerie Adams

New Zealand's Valerie Adams poses with her gold medal. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Valerie Adams has a simple answer when asked what more she wants to achieve in her shot-putting career. "Throw further," she said tonight, after successfully defending her Commonwealth Games title with almost embarrassing ease and a Games record of 20.47 metres.
The gold is the second for New Zealand in New Delhi, after track cyclist Alison Shanks' victory in the 3000m individual pursuit yesterday.
It is Adams' third Commonwealth medal.
The first was a silver in Manchester in 2002 as a 17-year-old, and the Aucklander has also added the world and Olympic titles to her resume since then.
The 12-strong field that assembled at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium might not have been the strongest that Adams has come up against, but that didn't diminish her delight at her win.
"Every time you put the bib on in competition, it's a matter of doing what you have to do," she said.
"People just expect you to win, so to come out here and defend my title and defend it with a very big throw, I'm bloody happy."
Adams, who turned 26 on Wednesday, was the raging hot favourite heading into the event, being the only competitor to have gone over 20m.
Her best of the night came with her very first effort, which was greeted with a roar from the crowd.
She reacted with a jump for joy and there was another little celebration when she managed 20.39m on her second throw.
Adams came close to her opening effort on her last two attempts, which measured 20.44m and 20.41m.
All six of her throws surpassed 20m, eclipsing her own Games record of 19.66m that she set in Melbourne four years ago.
Silver went to Cleopatra Brown of Trinidad and Tobago with 19.03m, while Samoa's Tasele Satupai took bronze with a personal best of 16.43m
Adams was short of her own personal best of 21.07m, achieved in winning the world athletics final in Greece last year, but her consistency was a feature of her latest victory.
"I'm stoked with my consistency throughout the series," she said.
"It's the end of the season, I'm tired, breaking the Commonwealth record -- I cannot ask for much more really."
Adams has been working on technical changes with new coach Didier Poppe since parting ways with long-time mentor Kirsten Hellier earlier this year.
She said she was seeing the benefits of those changes.
"Things take time," she said.
"It's a matter of just keeping going until we get there."
In other New Zealand athletics action tonight, Monique Williams claimed a place in the 200m semifinals after clocking the third-fastest time of the heats with 23.61 seconds