Germany's Nadine Muller led all qualifiers in the Daegu Discus Throw (© Getty Images)
Daegu, KoreaIn an opening session when the defending Pole Vault champion Steve Hooker failed to make it through qualifying, another of Australia’s gold medallists from Berlin, Dani Samuels, only narrowly avoided completing an unfortunate Down Under double.
Samuels, a surprise winner two years ago, had to wait and hope she had done enough to reach Sunday’s final after failing to manage no better than sixth place in the first of the qualifying group sessions.
Statistics did not favour the Australian – her 60.05m distance would not have qualified her for the final she won in Berlin, nor for the previous World Championship final in Osaka.
But it proved to be enough after the Group B qualification had concluded, with Samuels going through as the 11th best of the 12 finalists, one position ahead of Russia’s Darya Pishchalnikova, who managed 59.94m – and two places ahead of the disappointed Aretha Thurmond of the United States, whose effort of 59.88m was well short of her personal best of 65.86m and the 63.85m she achieved in Lausanne in June.
Nadine Muller of Germany, the Samsung Diamond League leader in her event, went through to the final with the best mark to her credit after achieving 65.54m with her first throw, comfortably over the automatic qualification mark of 62.00m.
As the third thrower in the order, Muller was able to put down a heavy marker on the rest of the field. She marked the achievement by raising both arms in triumph as she stood facing the back of the cage - raising a big cheer from the spectators who were already grouped around the bottom bend of the stadium.
Yangfeng Li, the Chinese thrower who leads this year’s world lists with 67.98m, fouled out in her first attempt but ensured her progress with a second round effort of 64.44m, and Cuba’s Olympic silver medallist Yarelys Barrios was the third best qualifier with her first round throw of 63.80m.
Poland’s Zaneta Glanc became the first woman to qualify automatically from the second group, clenching both fists in triumph as the monitors revealed the figure of 63.44m – just 55cm short of the personal best she set in winning the World Student Games title in Shenzen earlier this month.
Yangfeng’s compatriot Jian Tan was the fifth of the automatic qualifiers with 62.26.
Zinaida Sendruite of Lithuania, with a throw of 61.72m, and Dragan Tomasevic of Serbia, with 60.45m, booked their places for the final by finishing immediately ahead of Samuels in group A, while the woman who came one place below her on 59.94m, Russia’s Darya Pishchalnikova, also made the cut after managing 59.94m.
Stephanie Brown Trafton of the United States led the minor qualifiers in the second group with 61.89m, with Cuba’s Denia Caballero and Romania’s Nicoleta Grasu joining her with respective efforts of 60.36m and 60.13m.
If Samuels had a trying day, Vera Pospisilova-Cechlova had a worse one. The 32-year old Czech Republic thrower, who has a personal best of 67.71m and has thrown 63.40m this season, only managed 53.87m on her first throw, and things got worse from there. A second effort of 51.52m drew a pretty obvious curse as she stood in the circle taking stock, and when her final throw landed even closer to her she raised her eyes to the sky before stomping, rather than stepping, over the line to invalidate the measurement.
Mike Rowbottom for the IAAF
