Adams: Better late than never
Dame Valerie Adams says ‘‘justice has been served’’ after she was awarded her 10th world title she was initially denied by Belarusian drug cheat Nadzeya Ostapchuk back in 2010.
Moments after winning her 15th national title in the women’s shot put event in Hamilton on Friday, Adams was presented with the gold medal from the 2010 world indoor athletics championships at a ceremony at Porritt Stadium.
‘‘Better late than never. Justice has been served to some extent with bringing this medal home to New Zealand,’’ Adams said.
Ostapchuk first won gold (Adams took silver) at the 2010 world indoor championships in Doha, Qatar, and the Kiwi champion painfully had to settle for the same result at the London Olympics in 2012.
But the Belarusian athlete later tested positive for drugs and all her results between August 16 2008 and August 5 2012 were annulled by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The medals Ostapchuk won from events in that period have since been reallocated after recent retesting of historical samples using new technology, so the upgraded medal from the Doha indoor world championships means that she now has four successive world indoor titles from 2008 to 2014.
This year’s national track and field championships was her first competition since finishing second at the Rio Olympics 19 months ago, as she took time off to have her first child – she and husband Gabriel Price welcomed Kimoana Josephine Adams-Price in October.
Adams, 33, returned to fulltime training in December and was then included in New Zealand’s Commonwealth Games team in February, but she needed to compete at nationals to secure her place on the Gold Coast. And in her first event since giving birth to her daughter last October, Adams won the women’s shot put with a throw of 17.83m.