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It's bronze again for 'unfit' Poonia
Her war of words with Australian discus thrower, Dani Samuels, apart, Krishna Poonia disappointed at the Aoti Athletic Centre, with the tall thrower unable to improve on her bronze-medal performance in Doha four years back.
Her war of words with Australian discus thrower, Dani Samuels, apart, Krishna Poonia disappointed at the Aoti Athletic Centre, with the tall thrower unable to improve on her bronze-medal performance in Doha four years back.
A lot was expected from Poonia after her Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning performance, but the 5'11'' athlete could not improve on her first throw — which incidentally was her best — at 61.94 metres, leaving the Chinese duo of Song Aimin and Li Yangfeng to make it a one-two.
Poonia's effort, though better than her CWG gold medal-winning performance of 61.51, was nowhere near her personal bet of 63.69m.
"Before coming to Guangzhou, I was having a problem with my knee, which got aggravated while travelling in economy class. I couldn't stretch my injured leg during the flight and it became tender. I was having an MRI every day," said Poonia.
Song Aimin was trailing the Indian before clearing her silver-winning 64.04m, her season's best. Harwant Kaur, who had finished second behind Poonia at the CWG, was a distant fourth with 57.55m in the event.
In women's long jump, Mayookha Johny and MA Prajusha were no match for the athletes from other countries, coming 7th and 9th respectively in a field of 14 competitors. Mayookha cleared 6.33, while CWG silver-medallist Prajusha could clear 6.11, way below her 6.47 in the CWG.
Hari Shankar Roy, the national record holder in high jump, failed to even clear 2.15 metres, jumping 2.10 in his third attempt.
