But she failed in her target of beating the stadium record held by Belarusian Nadzeya Ostapchuk, the woman who had beaten her at London 2012 only to be subsequently stripped of the gold medal after testing positive for anabolic steroids.

Adams threw 20.26 metres, which was short of the stadium record of 20.63m held by the disgraced Ostapchuk.

"I'm just really happy to be here," said Adams, who had also won the Olympic gold medal at Beijing four years ago.

"I think tonight was just about embracing my first competition since the Olympic Games and I had fun out there and the crowd was great.

"Now it's just enjoy the competitions, have fun out there and enjoy the crowd."

Adams was among 11 London 2012 gold medallists taking part in an event held in the stadium originally built for the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.

Some fared better than others.

America's Sanya Richards-Ross, who won the 400m in London, won her first race since the Games and Russia's Yuliya Zaripova clocked the year's fastest time in the women's 3,000m steeplechase.

Russia's Olympic gold medallist Yuliya Zaripova continued her good form by clocking the fastest time in the world this year in the 3,000m steeplechase

But the Dominican Republic's Félix Sánchez was beaten in the 400m hurdles while Olympic 1500m champion Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria, running in the 800, was upstaged by 18-year-old Ethiopian Mohammed Aman, who won in 1min 43.56min.

Some consolation for Makhloufi was that his 1:43.71 was a personal best - less than two weeks after he was nearly kicked out of the Olympics after dropping out in the 800m at London claiming injury before coming back 24 hours later to win the 1500m.

Richards-Ross was trailing off the final curve before powering down the final straight to take victory from Botswana's Amantle Montsho in 49.89sec while Britain's Olympic silver medallist Christine Ohuruogo was third.

Zaripova, who set the previous world leading time in winning Olympic gold, bettered that performance by running 9:05.02, beating Tunisia's Habiba Ghribi into second place as she did in London.

Sanchez, whose tearful reaction to winning Olympic gold was one of the most emotional moments of the Games, lost to American Michael Tinsley, the man he beat into second place in London.

Olympic champion Christian Taylor of the United States won the men's triple jump while men's Olympic shot put champion Tomasz Majewski of Poland had to settle for second place behind American Reese Hoffa's first throw of 21.24m.

But Olympic champion Jennifer Suhr of the United States had an unhappy evening in the pole vault, entering the fray at 4.55m and failing to clear that height as London Games silver medallist Yarisley Silva of Cuba won with 4.70m.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
August 2012: Olympic shot put champion stripped of gold medal after testing positive for drugs