Big effort from Adams

Valerie Adams was always confident that the re-structuring of her technique would soon bear fruit and that appeared to be the case at the Continental Cup putting in Split on Sunday.

Having gone done eight times to her Bulgarian rival Nadzeya Ostapchuk in meeting this year, Adams finally came out on top.

In her first throw of the event Adams recorded her best of the season at 20.70m. Then with her second throw she went out to 20.86m, a mark that Ostapchuk had bettered only once this year.

The second throw will have been a big boost for Adams as it was the second best throw recorded at an IAAF World Cup event and within 12cm of the oldest women's competition record in the World Cup record books. That was set in 1979 by Ilona Briesneick.

Ostapchuk, whose first throw was 19.75m responded with a throw of 20.13m and 20.18.

However, Adams showed a good level of consistency by throwing 20.76 with her third and the win was hers when Ostapchuk fouled out with her remaining throws.

Just to highlight the improvement Adams achieved, she finished with a throw of 20.56m – all four throws better than anything else she had managed in competition this year.