Adams crushes rivals with meet record

New Zealand's Valerie Adams crushed her rivals in the women's shot put in the Diamond League meeting here on Wednesday. Adams, the three-time world champion who became a double Olympic champion after the initial winner in this month's London Games, Nadezhda Ostapchuk, was disqualified for doping, managed a best of 20.81 metres. The distance was a new record for the meeting -- the previous best of 20.63m was set in 2010 by none other than Ostapchuk -- with the shot put held a day before the main competition in a makeshift arena in Zurich's main railway station. American Michelle Carter claimed second spot with a best of 19.25m, Trinidad and Tobago's Cleopatra Borel completing the podium with 18.66. The result kept Adams well on course for victory in the Diamond League race to earn the title as world number one over the season. Details of when Adams will receive her gold from the London Games have not been finalised, but the shot putter has said she wanted the ceremony to include the New Zealand anthem playing and the national flag flying high. Adams expressed no sympathy for Belarus arch-rival Ostapchuk, who has said she will appeal the International Olympic Committee's decision to strip her of the title. The gold medal capped an emotional Olympic roller-coaster for Adams, whose preparations were thrown into disarray when New Zealand team officials accidentally left her off the start list of competitors in her event.