Krishna Poonia qualified for the women's discus throw final at the London [ Images ] Olympics [ Images ] with an impressive effort in the qualification round on Friday, Day 1 of the track and field events.
-London Olympics 2012 - Complete coverage
The Indian athlete began with a foul throw but regained composure to hurl the one-kg discus to 63.54m in the Group A competition at the showpiece Olympic Stadium.
Those who attained the qualification mark of 63.00m, or the best 12, made it to Saturday's final round.
The Commonwealth Games [ Images ] gold medallist is thus only the sixth Indian to make it to the final round of track and field at the Olympics after Milkha Singh [ Images ], P T Usha, S
Sriram, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa and Anju Bobby George [ Images ].
Poonia finished fifth in Group A behind 2008 Beijing [ Images ] Olympics silver medallist Yarelys Barrios (65.94m) of Cuba, Darya Pishchalnikova (65.02m) of Russia [ Images ], reigning World champion Li Yanfeng (64.48m) of China and former World champion Dani Samuels (63.97m) of Australia [ Images ].
She has a personal as well as season's best of 64.76m, a national record which she set in May at Hawaii in the United States.
While Poonia's compatriot Seema Antil missed out by a whisker.
Antil ended at 13th at the showpiece Olympic Stadium.
Antil had a best effort of 61.91m, which she came up in her third and final throw, to finish 13th and missed the final round.
Photograph: Matt Dunham/ AP Photo
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