Rio Olympics: Seema Punia adds to the gloom, finishes 20th in discus throw

Rio de Janeiro: Indian athletes continued to flounder in the Olympic track and field competition with   “controversial’ discus thrower Seema Punia producing a below par performance to finish 20th with a throw of 57.58 here on Tuesday. The 33-year-old Seema began with 57.58m in her first attempt and then fouled in her second try before hurling the disc to a distance of 56.78m to finish ninth in Group B qualification round and 20th overall. She was way behind her personal best mark of 64.84 and also came nowhere near her season’s best  of 62.62. The final round qualifying mark was set at 62m or the best 12 performers and if she could repeat her season’s best, she would have qualified. No doubt wind and heavy rain affected the performance of the athletes but that these tough conditions were for all the participants. It was level playing field. 2014 Asian Games gold winner Seema, who had training stints in United States and then went to Russia, ignoring the AFI’s directive not to train there, failed to get past the qualification round in all three of her Olympics appearances. She had failed in the qualification round in 2004 Athens and 2012 London Games too. Yaime Perez of Cuba topped the qualification round with 65.38m, followed by Su Xinyue of China with 65.14m. Pre-event favourite and 2012 London gold medallist Sandra Perkovic of Croatia was third in the qualification round with 64.81m. So far, only Lalita Babar has been able to reach the final round in women's 3000m steeplechase. Two other Indian athletes – Srabani Nanda, in women's 200m, and triple jumper Renjith Maheshwary – had also made hasty exit in the first rounds.