No end soon to Adams’ waiting for London gold

WELLINGTON - Reuters

Kiwi shot-putter Valerie Adams is itching to get the feel of the gold medal from London Olympics that is now hers but is bracing for a long wait that may spill over to next year.

Belarusian Nadezhda Ostapchuk won the gold in London with a throw of 21.36 metres earlier this month before being stripped of her medal for failing a dope test.

Adams, who hurled 20.70 metres to finish behind Ostapchuk, was the natural beneficiary of the outcome but her manager Nick Cowan was not sure when she would eventually get her second successive Olympic gold.

“If a medal was available today she wants it today, which is fair enough. But she wants to celebrate it in New Zealand as well and, in all reality, I think what we are staring at is a medal presentation in New Zealand, which she is really excited about,” Cowan was quoted as saying by the New Zealand Herald on Aug. 17. “But we don’t know if that is going to be in a month’s time, three, 10 or 12 so therefore we are preparing ourselves for a long haul.

“We can only hope that it will be quick and this side of Christmas, but it may not be and I have had that discussion with Valerie,” he added.

What might further delay a medal ceremony for Adams was the fact that Ostapchuk was defending herself, the report added.