Adams qualifies without difficulty

That was a statement throw.

With one put of the shot, Dame Valerie Adams showed she won’t be giving up her Commonwealth Games crown without a huge fight.

Adams advanced to the final of the 2018 Commonwealth Games women’s shot put without raising much of a sweat yesterday.

On a warm day at Carrara Stadium, the dual-olympic gold medallist threw 18.52m with her first throw to go well past the qualifying mark.

It was her season-best throw as she’s worked her way back to competition form after giving birth to her first child, daughter Kimoana, six months ago.

It was all she needed to do to qualify, but that one throw was the best distance by some measure in the two groups of qualifying held simultaneously, and showed Adams will be a huge threat in the final tonight.

Adams led her Group B qualifiers by over a metre, with England’s Sophie Mckinna next best on 17.24m. The Kiwi’s likely rival for gold, Jamaica’s Danniel Thomas-dodd, threw 16.89m to qualify. She won silver at the world indoor championships in Birmingham this year with a throw of 19.22m.

Canada’s Brittany Crew, who has competed against Adams in New Zealand this year, led the Group A qualifiers on 17.50m while Trinidad and Tobago’s Cleopatra Borel, who won silver behind Adams at Glasgow 2014 and Delhi 2010, was next best with 17.46m.

Adams is the three-time defending champ at the Commonwealth

It was her seasonbest throw as she’s worked her way back to competition form after giving birth to her first child six months ago.

Games gold in the event – along with a silver from Manchester 2002 – and has two gold and one silver Olympic Games medals.

The luck of the draw proved unkind to NZ’S Angie Petty in the women’s 800m heats.

She led for over a lap before finishing fifth in 2:00.62, with South African superstar Caster Semenya winning in 1:59.26. Petty’s time was faster than the second-place finishers in the other two heats but they were automatic qualifiers, meaning Petty missed out on the final.