AUCKLAND, Sept 19: Forty four days after the competition and 18,000 kilometres from London, New Zealand’s Valerie Adams finally got her hands on the Olympic shot put gold medal on Wednesday.

Adams, who finished second in the final on Aug 6 only for winner Nadzeya Ostapchuk to fail a dope test, was presented with the medal at a special ceremony in Auckland.

Flanked by the other New Zealanders who won medals in London, the 27-year-old climbed on to a podium and received the medal from the country’s Governor General Jerry Mateparae before the playing of the national anthem.

“Thank you so much to the people of New Zealand for your love and support for me as an athlete, I do this for you,” Adams, clearly close to tears, told the audience of some 2,000 people. “Today we got justice.

“I’m very overwhelmed, very speechless. I’m just glad today’s happened. It’s around my neck where it should have been in the first place.”

Ostapchuk was banned from competition for a year by Belarus’ anti-doping agency. She denied doping and her coach, Alyksandr Yefimov, has since claimed he dusted the athlete’s food with the steroid without her knowledge.—Reuters