PospisilovaCechlova Top Of The Class
The clouds departed, the sun came out and it gave the discus qualifiers a lift.
Twice a finalist, but this time in with a chance of a medal, the Czech Republic’s Vera Pospisilova-Cechlova was second into the circle and seemed in a hurry to enjoy the good weather. She made no mistake, qualifying with her first throw, reaching out to 64.26 metres, more than three metres over the 61m qualifying mark and furthest of the morning.
She was rapidly followed into the changing room by the three-time Chinese champion Aimin song, 64.15 and this year’s Mediterranean Games champion from Serbia, Dragana Tomasevic, 62.02. Olympic fifth placer, Ukraine’s Olena Antonova, waited until the third round to creep over the pink tape by five centimetres.
Throwing first in group B, former champion Franka Dietzsch from Germany was in no mood for hanging around and went through to the final with her first throw of the day, 63.53. 2001 World Championship silver, Nicoleta Grasu of Romania followed suit with her first heave of 62.06, while Natalya Sadova shot to the top of the group qualifiers with 63.65 on her first attempt.
Getting into the top 12 without reaching the qualifying mark were from group A Joanna Wisniewska POL, 59.66, the remaining finalists coming from the second group: Anna Soderberg SWE, 59.94, former champion Beatrice Faumuina NZL, 59.81, Shuli Ma CHN, 59.43 and Natalya Fokina UKR, 59.30.
