Seema Punia books Olympic berth

She became the 12th individual Indian athlete to qualify for the Tokyo Games.

Patiala: Veteran discus thrower Seema Punia on Tuesday qualified for the Tokyo Olympics with a gold wining effort of 63.72m on the final day of the National Inter-State Athletics Championships here.

The 37-year-old Punia, who had won a silver in the 2018 Commonwealth Games and a bronze in the 2018 Asian Games, breached the Olympic qualifying mark of 63.50m.

She became the 12th individual Indian athlete to qualify for the Tokyo Games.

Punia had reached Patiala from Minsk, where she had taken part in Belarus Open Championship last week, in the wee hours on Sunday. She went past the 60m mark on four of her five legal throws and found the power to breach the Olympic qualifying mark in her fourth try. She will be taking part in her fourth Olympics after the 2004, 2012 and 2016 editions of the Games.

Star sprinter Hima Das, who sustained a hamstring injury on Saturday while running 100m heats is set to miss the Tokyo Olympics as the women’s 4x100m of which she was a part earlier clocked 44.15 seconds, well outside the targeted time of 43.03 seconds. Telangana team, comprising Jeevanji Deepthi, H Devi Antaram, Nithya Gandhe and A Nandini took the bronze medal finishing after Sri Lankan team.

Hima also tried to compete in the women’s 200m final, chasing 22.80 seconds to qualify for Olympics, but finished fifth in 25.03 seconds. While Kerala’s Anjali and Sri Lankan BIM Mahamanne took gold and silver, Telangana sprinter Harika Devi Antaram finished third for a bronze. Antler State athlete Deepthi finished fourth in the 200m event.

The AFI’s selection committee will meet on Saturday to pick the Indian team for the Olympics. With World Athletics responding positively to the Athletics Federation of India request to consider the 3:01.89 clocked in the 4x400m heats on Friday, the men’s team’s 13th place was restored ahead of Germany, Poland and Czech Republic.

Running with a changed combination after Hima Das pulled out, the Indian women’s 4x100m relay quartet of AK Daneshwari, Archana Suseendran, S Dhanalakshmi and Dutee Chand a time of 44.15 seconds which was a meet record but well short of its target (43.03 seconds) that could have earned the team a berth in the Olympic Games

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