Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Yesterday, I decided that today's entry must be about the New Zealand women's shot put champion, Valerie Adams, and her attempt to win gold at the London Olympics.

At the qualifying round (last night, our time), she made the second highest distance at 20.40 metres, behind her arch-rival, Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Russia.

I set my alarm at 5:30 for this morning since the final was timed to start at 6:15 am (our time).

It started on time, and was all over by 7:05 am.

I jotted down figures throughout the puts, and sadly the t/v adverts ruined the continuity of it all for me. As a result, I missed some of the figures, and tried to fill them in later when on the t/v they showed the results for each athlete. In the following, X means that the athlete fouled or decided to not have the distance recorded; ? means that I missed what the figure was. I hope to show some of the drama of the event by recording, as best I can, throw by throw in the order that the puts were done. There were 12 athletes from the qualifying round, and each was allowed 3 puts, to reduce the field to 8 finalists. Then the finalists were allowed another 3 puts each.

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Liu of China                  19.18m

Tarasova of Russia      19.00

Kolodko of Russia        19.45

Schwanitz of Germany 18.20

Mikhnevic of Belarus     18.42

Arcanjo of Brazil            18.27

Gong of China               20.13

Adams of NZ                 20.61

Li of China                    18.87

Carter of USA               19.05

Ostapchuk of Belarus   20.01

Duco of Chile                18.80 Personal Best

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In the next round

Liu                       18.88

Tarasova             18.80

Kolokdo               19.52

Schwanitz           18.47

Mikhnevic            X

Arcanjo               X

Gong                  19.67

Adams               X

Li                       18.77

Carter               18.83

Ostapchuk        21.31 (at this stage, Adams would need to do a Personal Best to win Gold)

Duco                18.70

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In the 3rd round

Liu                       ? (possibly 18.74)

Tarasova             ?

Kolokdo               ? (possibly X)

Schwanitz           X

Mikhnevic            18.27

Arcanjo               19.02 Personal Best

Gong                  ?

Adams               20.70

Li                       19.28

Carter               18.92

Ostapchuk        21.36

Duco                18.62

In the final, the order of putting was

Arcanjo               X

Carter               19.42 Personal Best

Liu                     X

Li                       X

​Kolokdo             X

Gong                  19.76

Adams               X

Ostapchuk        21.15

Arcanjo               X

Carter               19.12

Liu                     18.47

Li                       19.63

Kolokdo             X

Gong                  20.22

Adams               X

Ostapchuk        21.32

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Arcanjo             17.19

Carter               18.88

Liu                     ?

Li                       19.58

Kolokdo             20.22 (an incredible effort, taking her into Bronze position!)

Gong                  ? (Lost her Bronze position to Kolokdo)

Adams               20.24 (Silver)

Ostapchuk        X (Gold)

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