Discus thrower Kamalpreet finishes sixth

The 25-year-old Kamalpreet, who qualified for the final as second best, was never in the running for a medal in the eight rounds which was interrupted by rain for more than an hour. Her best throw of 63.70m in the third round saw her finish at sixth.

The conditions were tough for all participants as rain started pouring down towards the end of the second round. Rain stopped after an hour, but the humidity seemed to have affected the throwers’ performances. The finalists had to be cautious as the approach area to the circle was wet.

Kamalpreet 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, Kamalpreet came up with a 63.70m effort, which saved her and put her in the sixth position as the bottom-four out of the 12 finalists were eliminated. Not much changed in the position of the throwers in the final three rounds.

Kamalpreet fouled the fourth throw and had a 61.37m in her penultimate attempt before sending the discus out of sector in the final one. American Valarie Allman took 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 silver and bronze respectively.

Dutee ran her season’s best in 200m but that was not enough. The 25-year-old clocked 23.85 seconds to finish seventh and last in Heat 4.