Kamalpreet finishes 6th in discus final; Dutee fails to reach 200m semi-finals

Tokyo, Aug 2: Discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur finished a creditable sixth in her first Olympics in a rain-interrupted final while sprinter Dutee Chand ended her campaign on a disappointing note by failing to qualify for the 200m semifinals here on Monday.
The 25-year-old Kaur, who has qualified for the final as second best on Saturday, was never in the running for a medal in the eight rounds of competition which was interrupted by rain for more than an hour.
Her best throw of 63.70m in the third round saw her finished at sixth and equal 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Krishna Poonia’s performance in the 2012 London Olympics.
Throughout the competition, Kaur, who was without her personal coach, looked nervous and short of confidence as she lacked international exposure. She has taken part in World University Games in 2017, her lone international competition.
It was a tough competition for all the participants as rain started pouring down towards the end of the second round and a few throwers taking their attempts in spite of slippery circle.
Rain stopped after an hour but the humidity seemed to have affected the throwers’ performance and they had to be cautious as the approach area to the circle was wet.
With her right shoulder heavily strapped, Kaur began with a 61.62m effort before fouling her next attempt. That put her under pressure and on the verge of being eliminated as she was ninth just before her third throw.
But she gave her best and came up with a 63.70m, that saved her and put her in the sixth position as the bottom four out of the 12 finalists were eliminated after three rounds.
Not much changed in the position of the throwers in the final three rounds. Kaur fouled the fourth throw and then had a 61.37m in her penultimate attempt before sending the discus out of sector in the final one.
After qualifying for the final on Saturday, Kaur had complained of a minor pain on her shoulder and knee but not to an extent which would severely impact her performance.
A farmer’s daughter at Punjab’s Kabarwala village, Kaur had raised hopes of India’s elusive athletics medal after finishing second in the qualification round on Saturday with a best throw of 64m.
American Valarie Allman took the gold with a first round throw of 68.98m while Kristin Pudenz (66.86m) of Germany and reigning world champion Yaime Perez (65.72m) of Cuba won the silver and bronze respectively.
Two-time defending champion Sandra Perkovic of Croatia was fourth with a best throw of 65.01m.
In the morning session, sprinter Dutee ran her season’s best in 200m but that was not enough for a semi-finals berth as she made a disappointing exit from the Olympics after finishing last in her heat race.
The 25-year-old Dutee, who had also crashed out of her pet event 100m in the first round, clocked 23.85 seconds to finish seventh and last in Heat 4.
Top three finishers from each of the seven heats and the next three fastest qualify for the semifinals. She finished 38th overall out of 41 competitors to end her second Olympic campaign on a disappointing note. (PTI)