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Saturday, August 16, 2008 (01:05:01) |
| Tags : Olympics, Indian athletes, Heptathlon, Discus |
Poor start by Indian athletes in Olympics
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Beijing: It was a muted start, almost as usual at this level, for the Indians on Friday, the opening day of the Olympics athletics competition. Neither the heptathlon trio nor the discus duo were able to raise themselves even close to the levels they had achieved to earn a ticket to Beijing.
Both the discus throwers, Krishna Poonia and Harwant Kaur, performed way below their best - and even the marks they achieved to make the Olympics - and finished way down in the final standings.
Poonia may well have qualified for the final, if only she had repeated her Asian Games bronze medal winning performance of 61.53 meters in December 2006. In Beijing, Poonia managed a best of 58.23 meters on the second of her three throws - the other being 57.31 meters and 58.15 meters.
Also making an early exit was Kaur, who with her best of 56.42 meters was way below the 61.09 meters she touched at the 2008 National inter-state athletics championships at Madurai to make the berth for Beijing. In the discus the top qualifier was Stephanie Brown Trafton of the US with a best of 62.77 meters. Nicoleta Grasu of Romania was second with 62.51 meters.
In the heptathlon, where the Indian athletics federation surprisingly decided to send all three qualifiers, the country was faced with another embarrassment as the three were lying way down the standings after the first day of the two-day event.
J J Shobha, 11th at the Athens Olympics, where she braved a knee injury to complete her event, was lying 29th with a first day total of 3,482, while G G Pramila was 32nd with 3,419 points and Susmita Singha Roy was 34th with 3,391. Only 39 competitors are left in the event that started with 43 in the morning.
The only redeeming feature for the Indian trio would be if they could at least total 6,000 points, which was the Olympic qualifying mark.(IANS) |
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