Poonia qualifies for discus throw final round,Seema out

Poonia finished eighth in the qualification round while

Antil ended at 13th at the showpiece Olympic Stadium. Those who touched the qualification mark of 63.00m or the best 12 make it to the final round to be held tomorrow.

Poonia began with a foul throw but regained her composure to hurl the one-kg discus to 63.54m to finish fifth in Group A and eighth overall.

Antil had a best effort of 61.91m,which she came up in her third and final throw,to finish 13th and missed the final round.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Poonia thus became only the sixth Indian to make it to the final round of track and field events in Olympics after Milkha Singh,P T Usha,S Sriram,Gurbachan Singh Randhawa and Anju Bobby George.

The seven throwers ahead of Poonia in the qualification round were 2008 Beijing Olympics silver medallist Yarelys Barrios 65.94m of Cuba,Nadine Muller 65.89m of Germany,European champion Sandra Perkovic 65.74m of Croatia,Darya Pishchalnikova 65.02m of Russia,defending champion Stephanie Brown Trafton 64.89m of United States,reigning world champion Li Yanfeng 64.48m of China and former world champion Dani Samuels 63.97m of Australia.

Poonia has a personal as well as season8217;s best of 64.76m,also a national record which she set in May at Hawaii in United States.