Indian athletes continue to disappoint

BEIJING: Indian athletes once again failed miserably at the Olympic platform, as they were unable to produce what they had achieved to earn the Olympic berth in the first place. As a result, discus thrower, Vikas Gowda and quarter-miler Mandeep Kaur, were both eliminated in the qualification rounds itself in the Beijing Games Saturday.

Gowda, 2005 Asian Championship silver medallist, came in with a personal best of 64.96 metres, but managed only 60.69m and finished 11th in the Group B and 22nd overall to finish his Olympic campaign.

Gowda, who has been training in the United States, where he is studying in the University of North Carolina, was 17th out of 29 athletes at Athens Olympics four years ago.

For the record, the top discus qualifier was Piotr Malachowski of Poland with a best of 65.94m and the last qualifier was Finland's Frantz Kruger, who threw the disc to 62.48m.

Mandeep Kaur, who has been credited with 51.74s at the Madurai Nationals, was more than a second slower in 52.88s and finished sixth in the seven-runner heat. The heat was won by Italian Libania Grenot Martinez, who clocked 50.87s, the fourth best time of the morning round.

Mandeep was 33rd overall in the field of 50 runners.

Sanya Richards of the US had the best time in the first round at 50.54s with Jamaican Shericka Williams second best at 50.57s.

India's women discus throwers have already been eliminated, while Preeja Sreedharan was 25th (32:34.64s) among the 29 runners who completed in the 10,000m.

The three heptathletes are also way below in the standings, as two more of the seven events need to be completed this evening.

GG Pramila (4302 points) was 28th, JJ Shobha (4289) 30th and Susmita Singha Roy (4234) 33rd from among the 39 who are still in fray. Pramila is 743 points behind the leader Natalia Dobrynska of Ukraine, who has 5045 points with Hyleas Fountain of US lying second at 5029 points.