Athletics: Faumuina edges into discus final

Beatrice Faumuina

Beatrice Faumuina remains confident of a world championship discus medal despite just scraping into the final in Finland.

The 1997 world champion qualified ninth for tomorrow's final in the women's discus preliminaries in Helsinki, with a best throw of 59.81m.

Vera Cechlova of the Czech Republic had the furthest qualifying throw of 64.26m, and the 12th and final qualifier threw 59.30m.

Faumuina just did enough with her first throw of 59.81m, then managed 57.36m with her second and a foul throw with her third. It was well off her best effort in 2005 of 65.09m, which ranked her sixth in the world.

Athletics New Zealand performance manager Eric Hollingsworth was "reasonably happy" with Faumuina's effort in difficult, slippery conditions.

"Qualifying is the main objective, and she's still got that expectation of a medal. If she gets there that'll be a fantastic bonus," Hollingsworth said.

"My main expectation of her is a top-eight finish, and her next goal is to make sure she gets an extra three throws in the final."

Faumuina will throw first in the 12-strong field in the final.

There was disappointment for New Zealand's other competitor on the second day, Melina Hamilton, who missed qualifying for the pole vault final.

Hamilton had three misses at 4.30m, 10cm short of her personal best. World record holder Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia led the way by clearing 4.40m and 4.45m with one attempt each.

The cutoff for final qualifying was 4.40m in an event becoming tougher and tougher, Hollingsworth said.

"The women's pole vault has moved on to a different class event. Melina's not in that class. She will compete well at Commonwealth level, but these days it's a minimum of 4.60m to get in the top four in the world."

New Zealand's interest on the third day today focuses on the men's 1500m semifinals, with Nick Willis and Adrian Blincoe both lining up.

- NZPA