London 2012 Athletics: Krishna Poonia qualifies for discus throw final, Antil out
India's Krishna Poonia qualified for the women's discus throw final round in London Olympics with an impressive effort in the qualification round on the first day of track and field events here.
India's Krishna Poonia qualified for the women's discus throw final round in London Olympics with an impressive effort in the qualification round on the first day of track and field events here.
Seema Antil missed out by a whisker on the first day of track and field events here. Antil, who has a season's best of 62.60m and personal best of 64.84m, had a foul throw in her first attempt and came up with a 61.10m effort in the second.
Poonia, who is hoping to win a medal, began with a foul throw but regained her composure to hurl the one-kg discus to 63.54m in the Group A competition at the showpiece Olympic Stadium.
Those who touched the qualification mark of 63.00m or the best 12 make it to the final round.
Poonia finished fifth in Group A behind 2008 Beijing Olympics silver medallist Yarelys Barrios (65.94m) of Cuba, Darya Pishchalnikova (65.02m) of Russia, reigning world champion Li Yanfeng (64.48m) of China and former world champion Dani Samuels (63.97m) of Australia.
Poonia has a personal as well as season's best of 64.76m, also a national record which she set in May at Hawaii in United States.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Poonia thus became only the sixth Indian to make it to the final round of track and field events in Olympics after Milkha Singh, P T Usha, S Sriram, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa and Anju Bobby George.
The final round will be held later on Saturday.