SILVER FOR STEVENS
TAKING ON THE WORLD:
EIGHT years ago she was a 21-year-old rising star named Dani Samuels who stunned the world to win the title.
At this year’s London world championships she was Dani Stevens, the consistent veteran who produced a career best throw to claim a discus silver medal.
The reigning Commonwealth champion has had the most consistent season of her career and it paid off with her second world titles medal.
Stevens set an Australian record with her final throw in the competition of 69.64m, surpassing Daniela Costian’s record of 68.72m which had stood since the 1994 Auckland Commonwealth Games.
Her previous best was 67.99m which she threw in Germany in 2014.
Unfortunately for Stevens, who married former shot putter Joe Stevens after the Rio Olympics where she finished fourth, she is up against one of the greatest in history.
Croatia’s Sandra Perkovic has won the past two Olympic titles and with a throw of 70.31m she secured her second world title.
“I always had faith in my potential and the direction we’ve been heading,” she said.
“Coming fourth in Rio last year was a really big motivator. I’ve known we’ve been on the right track.
“It’s just about being able to unleash one in a pressure situation. I felt like I was
building with each throw.
“The first two were a little bit shaky but that third one that went out of the sector I felt a little bit more rhythm and then came the 66 but I knew that I wasn’t safe.
“That last one I was just able to completely relax and unleash and I saw it had great height and I knew it was in the sector and then it bounced right near the 70m line and I thought, ‘Holy’.
“I was hoping for a 68-plus PB. I just wanted to throw what I knew I could throw and reach my potential because I knew I was in PB shape and I wanted to win a medal for Australia.
“I got the Aussie and the area record, which I didn’t even know what that was.”
Fittingly, Steven’s good friend Sally Pearson, who is Australia’s only other medallist at the championships, was in the crowd to celebrate her roommate’s big moment.
A personal best in the men’s 20km walk still wasn’t enough for Dane Bird-Smith to repeat his medal winning effort from Rio last year.
The Brisbane walker finished sixth in a career best 1hr19.28sec but he was 35 seconds behind world champion Colombia’s Eider Arevalo.
Bird-Smith, who won bronze at last year’s Olympics, cramped late in the race.
“Mixed emotions here,” he said. “It’s a massive PB, it’s my best placing at a world champs, it just wasn’t the race I was expecting to have.”