In 1998 Vili first met former javelin thrower Kirsten Hellier, who would become her long-standing coach.
Vili first came to prominence when winning the World Youth Championships in 2001, with a throw of 16.87 m. She followed this up in 2002 by becoming World Junior champion, throwing 17.73 m, and had her first taste of senior success winning a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games with 17.45 m.
She finished fifth at the 2003 World Championships at eighteen years of age.
At her first Olympics in 2004, Vili finished eighth, while still recovering from an appendectomy she had just weeks before the competition.
The following year, she earned a place in the international elite, winning a bronze medal at the World Championships with a personal best throw of 19.87 m, and going on to finish second at the World Athletics Final. At the 2006 Commonwealth Games the 1.96 m-tall athlete won the gold medal, breaking the 20-year-old Commonwealth Games record of 19.00 m with a throw of 19.66 m.
In 2007, Vili went to the Osaka World Championships as a favourite to take a medal due to her being one of only three women to throw over 20m before the championships. In qualifying, Vili led the field with a throw of 19.45 m. Vili held second place behind Nadzeya Astapchuk throughout the final, but responded well in the last round with a mammoth throw and Commonwealth record of 20.54 m to take the gold. This made Vili one of few female athletes ever to take IAAF World Titles at youth, junior and senior level.
In 2008 Vili broke the Oceania record in winning her first World Indoor Title in Valencia (20.19 m).
At the Beijing Olympics, she qualified for the final with the longest distance thrown, 19.73 meters, on her first attempt. She won the gold with a throw of 20.56 m, a personal best, beating Belarussian thrower Natallia Mikhnevich. It is the first Olympic gold medal in track and field for New Zealand since John Walker won the 1,500 meter race in 1976.
She also won the New Zealand Sports Award of the year in 2008.
At the 2009 Grande Prêmio Rio in Brazil Vili won the competition with a new personal best and Oceanian area record of 20.69 m. The throw was also the world leading distance for the event.
On the 16th of August 2009, Vili won the world championship in Berlin with a throw of 20.44 meters, ahead of the German Nadine Kleinert (20.20 PB) and Lijiao Gong of China (19.89 PB).
Vili announced on 28 March 2010 that she would no longer be coached by Kirsten Hellier after an 11 year partnership.
stats
Nationality :New Zealand
Born :October 6, 1984
Place Rotorua, New Zealand
Height: 1.96 m
Weight: 120 kg
Records
Current record holder of Oceania's Shot Put (20,69 m)
Olympic 1 gold
World Championships 2 gold 1 copper
Commonwealth Games 1 gold 1 silver
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