Poonia misses medal at Oregon, comes fourth

New Delhi: Olympic-bound Indian discus-thrower Krishna Poonia came up with a below-par effort of 62.11m to miss out on a medal and settle for the fourth spot in the Perfontaine Classic Diamond League Meet at Eugene in Oregon, United States.

Krishna's effort was markedly lower than the national record of 64.76m that she pulled off to qualify for the London Olympics in Hawaii earlier this month. But it was still better than 2008 Olympics gold winner Stephanie Brown Trafton of United States who had a 'No' mark against her name.

The gold in the event went to Sandra Perkovic (66.92m) of Croatia, who won the Shanghai leg of Diamond League Meet in 68.24m. The other two Indian women taking part in the fourth leg of the 14-leg Diamond League Meet series are Asian Games gold medalist in 10,000m Preeja Sreedharan and silver medalist Kavita Raut. Sreedharan and Raut are yet to attain Olympics qualification.

Discus-thrower Poonia\'s effort was lower than the national record of 64.76m that booked her an Olympic berth earlier.

The duo, along with 3000m steeplechase Asian Games gold medalist Sudha Singh and O P Jaisha, were earlier training in Kenya before moving base to Brescia in Northern Italy to train under Claudio Berardelli, regarded as one of the best endurance-running coaches in the world.

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