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Tokyo 2020: India's Kamalpreet Kaur qualifies for discus throw final

The 25-year-old finished just behind USA's Valarie Alman to raise hope of a first medal in track and field arena for India.

Kamalpreet Kaur

Bengaluru, July 31: India's Kamalpreet Kaur has qualified for the discus throw final with a throw of 64M at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The 25-year-old finished just behind USA's Valarie Alman in Group B to raise hope of a first medal in track and field arena for India.

The women's discus throw final will be held on Monday (August 2) at 8pm local time (4.30pm IST).

The other Indian discus thrower in the fray -- Seema Punia -- bowed out of contention for a place in the finals after finishing sixth in Group A.

Competing in Group B, Kamalpreet hurled the discus to a distance of 64M in her third and final attempt to be one of the only two automatic qualifiers for the final round, the other being Allman (66.42M).

The Indian ended ahead of defending gold-medallist Sandra Perkovic (63.75M) of Croatia and reigning world champion Yaime Perez (63.18M) of Cuba.

Perkovic qualified at third and Perez at seventh.

Seasoned campaigner Jorinde van Klinken of the Netherlands failed to make the final round cut with a modest throw of 61.15M.

She has a season's best of 70.22M while Allman is second best this year at 70.01M.

Kamalpreet began with an effort of 60.29M and then improved it to 63.97M before her third throw of 64M.

The Punjab athlete has been in impressive form this season as she breached the 65M mark twice recently.

She threw 65.06M during the Federation Cup in March to break the national record and become the first Indian to breach the 65M mark.

Then in June, she bettered her own national record with a throw of 66.59M during the Indian Grand Prix-4 to sit at world No.6.

Curtains for Seema

However, veteran Seema made an exit after finishing sixth in qualification A and 16th overall with a below-par best throw of 60.57M.

Seema, who had booked a last minute Olympics berth, was way below her season and personal best marks.

She fouled her first throw and had 60.57M and 58.93M in her next two attempts to make an exit from what would be her last Olympics.

The 38-year-old Haryana athlete had made it to Tokyo 2020 on the day of qualification deadline with a throw of 63.72M during the National Inter-State Championships in Patiala on June 29.

She has a personal best of 64.84M, a performance she produced way back in 2004.

Story first published: Saturday, July 31, 2021, 9:55 [IST]
Other articles published on Jul 31, 2021