Canada's Sarah Mitton gains joy, relief from 2nd straight world indoors shot put title

There was both joy and relief in being victorious for Sarah Mitton.

Mitton won her second consecutive women's shot put title at the world indoor track and field championships last weekend, with a top throw of 20.48 metres — 0.41 metres ahead of second place.

She had three 20-plus metre throws (20.36, 20.15 and 20.48) that were all good enough to win her gold in Nanjing, China.

"It's an emotional high winning a title," the Brooklyn, N.S., native said. "I think being able to go in as a defending champion, there was a lot more pressure and a lot more eyes on me this year. ... I knew that I was going in with a lot more to lose this year than I did the previous, and I think the emotion is a little bit of relief.

"Not in necessarily winning, but being able to go back out into a competition and depend on myself. I had a really long, really tough summer with some family issues and some personal stuff going on, and the Paris Olympics obviously not going the way I wanted it to.

"That was the first time in a long time that I didn't perform on kind of that global scene, and I worked so hard to change that."

WATCH | Mitton successfully defends her world indoor shot put title in China:

Nova Scotia's Sarah Mitton successfully defends her world indoor shot put title in China

The victory, however, did not come easy. The shot put was held at the same time as the heats for the men's 60 metres, women's 400, and men's 1,500, with the women not being able to throw during introductions and competition for those events.

"The competition was ridiculously long," Mitton's coach Richard Parkinson said. "At one point, there's like half an hour between rounds. So it really hurt the women and the competition."

Parkinson wasn't initially sure if