- Saturday, November 23, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
DISCUS thrower Kamalpreet Kaur on Saturday (31) produced one of the best performances by an Indian athlete at the Olympic Games and made the finals.
The 25-year-old from Patiala in the northern Indian state of Punjab, who was competing in qualification B, sent the discus to a distance of 64 metres in her and third and final attempt to become one of the two automatic qualifiers for the final round – the other being the USA’s Valarie Allman (66.42 metres).
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The final will be held on Monday (2).
Through her performance, Kaur finished ahead of defending gold medallist Sandra Perkovic (63.75 metres) of Croatia and reigning world champion Yaime Perez (63.18 metres) of Cuba. Th Croatian qualified at third and Perez at seventh.
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Veteran Indian discus thrower Seema Punia, however, crashed out after finishing sixth in qualification A and 16th overall with a below-par best throw of 60.75 metres.
Kaur began with a 60.29-metre effort, then bettered it to 63.97 metres and finally went for 64 metres. Every competitor gets three throws and those who touch 64 metres or at least 12 best performers in the two qualifying rounds make the final.
Kaur, whose father missed her remarkable performance at the Games since he was busy working at his farm, has been in an impressive form this year and breached the 65-metre mark twice in recent times.
In March, she threw 65.06 metres during the Federation Camp at home to break the national record and became the first Indian to breach the 65-metre mark.
