LONDON, England (AFP) — Belarus’ Nadezhda Ostapchuk won the women’s Olympic shot put title here yesterday with a throw of 21.36m to end the almost two-year unbeaten run of defending champion Valerie Adams of New Zealand.

The 31-year-old — the last person to beat Adams, in Lausanne on August 22, 2010 — collected the only title missing from her collection ahead of Adams, who took silver with 20.70m.

Russia’s Yevgeniya Kolodko took bronze with a personal best of 20.48m.

“I’m very happy at this moment,” said the champion.

“It’s my third Olympic Games and it’s a long way to get to this gold medal. My coach said that I must commit everything because my opponents were very strong.”

Adams had had the worst possible run-in to the Games as an administrative error had seen her not even entered and New Zealand officials scrambling to rectify her omission.

“I found it out yesterday,” said 27-year-old Adams.

“I don’t want to make any excuses of it but it was a couple of hours of stress. It’s something you just don’t need, you would think that they would take care of it.”

It left her far from happy, especially with the end result.

“I am disappointed to be honest but that’s sport. I really wanted to do my target but that was impossible. I gave it my all.

“I am happy with the medal but not happy with the colour. But I gave my heart out there.”

Both Ostapchuk and Carter recorded their best throws in the third round in the Olympic Stadium with Carter producing a throw of 20.70m and the Belarusian an impressive 21.36m.

China’s Gong Lijiao had led in the first round with 20.13m but was unable to improve on that effort until her penultimate throw when she improved by nine centimetres.

However, Gong was to be denied the bronze when Kolodko put everything into her last attempt and gave a yelp of delight when the personal best flashed up.

Adams was unable to come up with a throw to overtake Ostapchuk and thus handing the title to the Belarus athlete, who did a no-throw before setting off to hug her coach.

The bungle over Adams’ entry could have far reaching consequences for the official responsible.

The New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) said it was investigating, but added in a statement that it was taking the situation “extremely seriously” and was “committed to finding out exactly what occurred”.