AND A NEW HOPE
Kamalpreet Kaur ranked ahead of a defending gold medallist and a reigning world champion on Sunday. With a throw of 64m, behind only Valarie Allman of the US, the 25-year-old sealed her spot in the finals of the women’s discus throw and said: “I feel I can... win a medal.”
CHANDIGARH/NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Games, Kamalpreet Kaur’s father Kuldeep Singh told the Olympic Channel how his daughter, as a young girl, would not eat for days if she did not win in age-group competitions. That hunger for success has always stood out in the discus thrower from Kabarwala, a small farming village in Punjab.
That zeal has stood out at every step. It gave her independence, helping to avoid family pressure to get married very young like most other girls in her village.
On Saturday morning, as Kuldeep worked in his farm, his daughter was demonstrating her grit and skill at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium in the women’s discus qualification.
Her first throw went 60.29m and her second 63.97m. Kaur’s third try landed on the 64m mark, ensuring automatic qualification for Monday’s final. It stood out. US thrower Valarie Allman (66.42m) was the only other competitor to achieve automatic qualification.
The remaining 10 finalists came in as the best among the rest, having fallen short of 64m. Croatia’s 2016 Rio champion Sandra Perkovic (63.75m) and Cuba’s 2019 world champion Yaime Perez (63.18m) qualified at third and seventh respectively, though they can be expected to go much further on Monday.
Kaur is the third Indian to qualify for an Olympics discus final. Vikas Gowda and Krishna Poonia achieved that at 2012 London.
“I was feeling nervous before the throw. But after the first attempt, I felt better. By the third throw I was confident and that is why I touched 64m,” she told PTI. “I think I will be confident during the final. I feel I can better my personal best (66.59m at Indian GP4 in June) and win a medal for the country. That is my sole target now.”
Kaur’s top effort on Saturday was better than the effort for bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She has thus emerged a dark horse to become India’s first Olympic medallist in athletics. Her personal coach Rakhi Tyagi is confident. “I’ve been training to build a mindset that she can throw over 67m and 68m,” said Tyag. She was following the event on TV. After Kaur’s first attempt, Tyagi got in touch with an Indian coach at the event, pointing out that Kaur needed to thrust her lower body more. She was given the message and made the adjustment.
In March, at the Federation Cup in Patiala, she came witj a personal best of 62m but the target was 65m. “I told my coach I’m so excited I can’t sleep, how will I recover?” she told the Olympic channel. It needed one throw to change everything. On March 19, her very first effort was 65.06m—a national record as she made the cut for Tokyo.
Tokyo is the culmination of an impressive journey.