On Tuesday, Discus thrower Seema Punia qualified for her fourth Olympic at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports (NSNIS), Patiala. While qualifying she also broke a record in the women’s discus throw.
The 38-year-old athlete Seema Punia has now joined Kamalpreet Kaur in the Tokyo Olympics. Punia made a new record on the fifth and the last day of the 60th National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports (NSNIS), Patiala.
Many congratulations to Seema Punia who booked her #TicketToTokyo with a throw of 63.72m in the women’s discus throw at the National Inter-State #Athletics Championship.
— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) June 29, 2021
The qualifying mark was 63.5m.#Cheer4India pic.twitter.com/BpyQIlvLpC
Fourth Olympic for Seema Punia
Prior to Tokyo Olympics Punia has participated in the 2004 Athens Games, 2012 London, and 2016 Rio Games.
In her first attempt, she made it to 59.31 m and gradually increased her score with every attempt. She made it to 60.35 m and then 63.18 m in the third. In fourth and fifth she extended her score to 63.5 m and 63.7 m respectively. Sonal Goyal of Delhi and Madhu Renu of Rajasthan did not make it to the 50 m cut and landed in the second and third position.
In the World Athletics (WA) tournament, the global governing body of athletics said that the Indian quartet’s timing will be considered in the 13th position. The Indian team's timing was 3 minutes 01.89 seconds.
On Friday, the men’s 4x400m team set a new meet record of 3:01.89s in the heats which propelled the Indians to 13th position. The team included Muhammed Anas, Amoj Jacob, Arokia Rajiv, and Noah Nirmal Tom.
Amoj Jacob complained about pain on Monday hence was rested. Jacob an Indian sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres and the 800 metres. He was replaced by 400m hurdler M P Jabir for the Finals. The team broke the old record of 3:09.29 which was set by Kerala in the 2006 Chennai edition and set a new record of 3 minutes 05.22 seconds.
In the 4x400m, the Indian team will have to wait for the World Athletic’s Road to Tokyo rankings list which will be released soon.