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Anju qualifies for final at Worlds

Last updated on: August 27, 2007 14:20 IST

Anju Bobby George qualified for the women's long jump final despite failing to better her season's best performance at the Word Athletics Championships in Osaka on Monday.

Images: Athletics World Championships - Day 2

Anju managed a best effort of 6.60m in the qualifying round and made it to the medal round in 11th place out of the 12 jumpers who got through.

The qualifying mark was set at 6.75m but with only seven athletes managing to achieve that, the next five best performers made it to the finals.

In women's discus throw, Krishna Poonia failed to make it to the final after managing a best of 57.17m in qualifying, way below her personal best of 61.53m or her season's best of 58.80m.

Anju's efforts were far below her personal best of 6.83m, that she did at the 2004 Athens Olympics and her season's best of 6.65m, but she would be aiming to improve her performance in the final on Tuesday.

Anju's best effort came in her first attempt while she managed 6.59m in her second jump. Her hopes of improving on them did not materialise as her third attempt was a foul jump.

Portugal's Naide Gomes and Russian Lyudmila Kolchanova were the best jumpers on show with marks of 6.96m each, just ahead of Brazilian Maurren Higa Maggi's season's best effort of 6.95m.

For Krishna, it was all the more disappointing for her since four of the finalists had qualifying jumps measuring below Krishna's personal best.

The qualifying mark was set at 61.50m.

German Franka Dietzsch (65.17m) led the qualifiers ahead of Roania's Nicoleta Grasu (64.26m) and Yarelis Barrios of Cuba (63.44m).

Krishna started with a disappointing mark of 50.52m but improved to 54.38m in her second.

Krishna's best effort came in her final attempt and could only finish 11th out of 14 throwers in Heat B and 23rd overall among 28 contestants.

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