This season’s results and tonight’s qualification round indicate only one possible direction that the gold medal can go in Friday’s final (27 Aug).
The World record holder Osleidys Menendez of Cuba the season’s leader with 68.23, qualified automatically (61.00 or over) with a 64.91 first round release to top Pool A.
Perhaps ready to challenge the form book and the opening statement of this report is Czech Nicola Brejchova, one of only two women to have beaten the Cuban this summer (Linz, 2 Aug) who led the second qualification pool with 64.39.
The other member of this vanquishing duo, is Menendez' Cuban compatriot Noraida Bicet (beat her in Havana, 4 June) who sneaked into the final (with the last throw of the day) as the overall twelfth best thrower (60.97), the only non-automatic qualifier (Group B).
There will be three Cubans in the final as Sonia Bisset also proceeded from the second group with a 61.45 release. However, second best behind Brejchova, with a season’s best of 62.11 was Bahamas’ Laverne Eve, the Commonwealth champion.
Menendez pool (A) was by far the stronger with the remaining eight finalists coming from its number.
Surprise of the night was the 63.07 national record from Ukraine’s Tatyana Lyakhovich whose previous personal best was 60.78 (2000). Her season’s best prior to this was 60.58. The Ukrainian’s mark was the second best of the entire preliminary round.
Greece’s 34 year-old Savva Lika was close to her PB (62.89) with 62.22 on her second attempt.
Also into the final was Germany’s Steffi Nerius (62.14), last year’s World bronze medallist and fourth placer in Sydney, Romania’s Felicia Tilea-Moldovan (62.05) who was the 1995 World silver medallist, Barabara Madejczyk of Poland (61.18), the World Student Games champion, and Finland’s Taina Kolkkala (61.16), a former World Junior champion.
Last of eight automatic qualifiers from this group was reigning World and European champion Mirela Manjani of Greece with 61.04, but she has been injured and stated tonight – “It’s a bit difficult for me because I have been injured….I’m hanging in there though….I was in pain and it showed. My shoulder was killing me.”
The notable non-qualifiers were Russia’s Valeriya Zabruskova ( 57.33), Nikolett Szabó of Hungary (60.20), who are both in this season’s world top-10, and Finland’s Mikaela Ingberg (60.80m – 13th best) the reigning double European bronze medallist, and her compatriot the Finnish record holder, Paula Hautaniemi (56.88).
CT
