CWG 2014: Krishna Poonia, Seema Punia reach final of women's discus throw

Krishna Poonia

Glasgow, Aug 1 (IANS): Both Seema Punia and Krishna Poonia advanced to the women's discus throw final but while Seema's throw put her in second position, Krishna was placed a lowly 11th in the qualification round of the 2014 Commonwealth Games at the Hampden Park Stadium.

It was already a memorable day for Indian athletics with men's discus thrower Vikas Gowda giving the country its first gold medal in the discipline at the Glasgow Games.

Seema and Krishna, who won the gold in Delhi Games four years ago, gave the Indian contingent something more to cheer about with their qualification Thursday night.

After failing to get on the board with her first two attempts, Seema, who has a personal best of 64.64 metres, threw 58.44 in her third attempt to finish behind Australia's Dani Samuels (64.53).

Krishna too missed with her first two throws but in her third attempt registered a distance of 51.36 metres to scrape through to the final.

The top 12 athletes in the qualification round advance to the final.

17 discus throwers were due to participate in the event but Cameroon's Auriel Dongmo failed to start.

The final will take place on Friday.