Olympics: Poonia finishes 7th in discus throw

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India's Krishna Poonia finished seventh in the women's discus throw event in the London Olympics with a below-par performance here on Saturday.

Poonia hurled the discus to a distance of 63.62m, well below her personal best of 64.76m - also a national record - at the showpiece Olympic Stadium here.

The Commonwealth Games gold medallist Indian cleared 62.42m in her first attempt which was enough for him to make it to the top eight. Poonia fouled her throw in the second attempt and came up with a 61.61m effort in the third.

Out of the 12 finalists, four were eliminated after three attempts and Poonia was seventh at that stage. Her fourth throw was also a foul before coming up with 63.62m in the fifth attempt.

Poonia, who looked subdued throughout the competition, could only clear 61.31m in her sixth and last attempt.

European champion Sandra Perkovic of Croatia won the gold with a throw of 69.11m while the silver and bronze went to Darya Pishchalnikova (67.56m) of Russia and reigning world champion Li Yanfeng (67.22m) of China.

2008 Beijing Olympics gold winner Stephanie Brown Trafton of United States finished eighth behind Poonia with a throw of 63.01m.

On Friday, Poonia 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.