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S S Ramaswamy Guangzhou, Nov 23 (PTI) Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Krishna Poonia settled for a bronze in women''s discus throw despite performing better in Asian Games here and G Prameela finished third in heptathlon as Indian athletes failed to sparkle on the third day of track and field competition today. Indian athletes could only win two medals today which was an improvement over yesterday''s lull but a huge setback after opening day''s spectacular show when Preeja Sreedharan and Kavita Raut won the gold and silver in women''s 10,000m and Sudha Singh added another unexpected yellow metal in 3,000m steeplechase.
Poonia, coached by her husband Virender Kumar, started off the discus competition with lot of promise by clearing 61.94m in her first attempt but well short of her personal as well as season''s best of 63.69m. It was good enough to fetch Poonia, who has been challenged for a winner-takes-all discus throw fight by world champion and Commonwealth Games absentee Dani Samuels of Australia, the third place but not the title though it bettered her CWG gold-winning effort of 61.51m.
Poonia, who was followed behind in the fourth place by Harwant Kaur -- silver medalist in Delhi who threw the disc to a modest 57.55 m, later blamed a knee injury for her below-par performance today. "I hoped I could do better.
However, it was good enough for me since I carried a left knee injury during the competition," she said, adding she planned to take a break. The gold went to Chinese strongwoman and pre-event favourite Li Yanfeng, a former two-time continental champion, who killed the competition with a 66.18m heave, her season''s best, in her second attempt.
The silver was won by another Chinese and defending champion Song Aimin who also came up with her season''s best effort of 64.04m. The heptathlon bronze was grabbed by veteran Prameela who was third in the small field of six entrants after the first four events -- 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m dash -- yesterday and went in today with a total of 3204 points to her credit.
Prameela secured the bronze after completing the remaining three events -- long jump, javelin throw and 800m run -- with 5415 points, way below the national record of J J Shobha (6211 points), while her compatriot Susmita Singha Roy ended up fourth with 5051 points. Prameela was delighted with her medal and said she had waited for this moment for the last dozen years.
"I am very happy with my performance. I was waiting for this moment for the last 12 years," she said.
Uzbekistan''s Yulia Tarasova, who was leading yesterday with 3570, secured the gold with 5783 while the silver went to Japan''s Yuki Nakata, who secured 5606 after trailing in second place last evening with 3217 points. .
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