Gowda fails to qualify for discus final

National record holder Vikas Gowda put up a brave effort but was pipped by a few centimetres in the men's discus throw final at the 10th world championships in Helsinki, Finland.

Gowda, ranked 29th in the world, managed a best effort of 62.04 metres which fell short of the qualifying mark on Saturday night.

Only 10 of the 27 athletes in the qualifying event managed to breach the cut-off mark of 63.50m.

But two other competitors -- Frantz Kruger of South Africa and Jarred Rome of the United States-- had better performance than Gowda.

Kruger threw 63.44m while Rome was narrowly ahead with a clearance of 62.72m.

The 22-year-old Indian's effort was well below his personal best of 64.69m which he had set in Charlotte in April this year.

The performance must have disappointed Gowda, a student in statistics at the University of North Carolina in the United States, who also represented India at the Athens Olympics.

In the Olympics, he finished eighth in the qualifiers with an attempt of 61.39 metres, thus narrowly missing the finals of the competition.

Germany's Lars Riedel, seeking his sixth world discus title, came up with his best throw of the year, 66.22 meters, to qualify for the final.

Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania, the Olympic and defending champion, topped the qualifying with a throw of 68.79m.