Kamalpreet Kaur finished second behind USA's Valarie Allman who threw the discus a whopping 66.42 meters far.
Follow Us
In three successful throws to her name, Kamalpreet Kaur has directly qualified for the finals of the Tokyo Olympics. Kaur came in heavily strapped on her throwing arm and made threw the discus at 60.29 meters, breaching the 60-meter mark. From that moment onwards, she only got better. Her second attempt came in at 63.97 meters, and her coach in the stands looked satisfied.
With a reassuring nod from the official, her coach became more satisfied and knew the final attempt by Kaur would be a miraculous one. Needless to say, it wasn’t anything short of near perfection. Kamalpreet Kaur finished second behind USA’s Valarie Allman who threw the discus a whopping 66.42 meters far. Both the athletes from this Pool have received direct qualification to the finals. (Tokyo 2020 full coverage)
In order for an athlete to make it to the automatic qualification mark, she had to make it to or past the 64m mark. However, in Group A, none of the athletes breached that mark. The top 12 from the two groups combined would go through to the finals. With this result, only Kaur qualifies, Seema Punia is out, she finished 16th.
Meanwhile, Olympic silver medalist five years ago, France’s Melina Michon finished fifth in the A pool with her best throw at of 60.88. That is is just 0.31m more than Seema Punia.
2016 Rio Olympics women’s discus throw champion Perkovic has also gotten a qualification to the finals with the best throw of Group A.
The Tokyo Olympics, which was delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is now up and running. The Games have not been without their share of controversies, however.
The event is happening despite protests from the Japanese people. Tokyo is currently in a state of emergency due to a rise in COVID cases.
The Games will be played in the absence of fans, always a major psychological blow to athletes.
Nevertheless, the Games remain an event that many around the world will be keen to watch. From July 23 to August 8, many will be hooked onto their televisions to follow the events.
