Discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur finished a creditable sixth at Olympics. The 25-year-old, making her Olympic debut, got her chance to compete against Perković. With a confident opening throw of 61.62, Kaur slipped into the top eight out of 12 finalists. After all the finalists finish three throws each, the top eight get to throw three more to decide the medallists. At this stage, Kaur improved to 63.70 to finish sixth. It is the best throw by an Indian woman at the Olympics, bettering Krishna Poonia’s 63.62m from 2012 London.
The discus final was interrupted by rain and throwers had a tough time on a slippery circle. American Valerie Allman won gold with the best effort that sent the disc over 68.98m. Perković, the 2012 and 2016 Olympic champions, finished 4th with a throw of 65.01.
“I was very excited as it was my first Olympics and nervous at the same time,” Kamalpreet said. “I could have done better with a few more international competitions. It is a good lesson for me.”
