Kamalpreet breaks discus national record, secures Olympic berth

CHANDIGARH: She had not held a disc until she was 15. Exactly 10 years later, Kamalpreet Kaur cemented her Tokyo Olympics berth with a national record of 65.06m on the final day of Federation Cup in Patiala on Friday.

Kamalpreet, who hails from Badal village in Sri Muktsar Sahib, broke the nine-year-old national record of 64.76m held by 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Krishna Poonia. Veteran Seema Punia finished second with a best effort of 62.64m and Sonal Goyal of Delhi took the bronze with 52.11m.

The

Tokyo Olympics qualifying mark

is 63.50m.

"I was consistently reaching the 65m mark in training, so I was confident of securing the Olympic berth. It is surreal for me as I picked up the sport just as a hobby, and now I will be representing my country in the Olympics," Kamalpreet told TOI.

"I was in class 10th when I first lifted the disc. My school coach asked me to give a trial at an inter-school meet because of my physique. I went on to win gold in that tournament. From there on, I realised that this is what I am going to do in the future," recalls Kamalpreet, who improved her earlier personal best by as much as four metres.

The 6 feet, 1 inch tall athlete broke into the scene in 2018 at the Inter-Railways meet, where she pipped Navjeet Kaur Dhillon for the gold medal. In the same event, she broke Krishna Poonia's Railways record.

Being the youngest kid in the family, Kamalpreet's father, Kuldeep Singh was against her decision to move to the

Sports Authority of India

centre in Badal village. "The hostel is just 30km from my house, but my father didn't want me to go. He tried to scare me by saying that I won't be able to adjust in the hostel, but after a couple of weeks, he gave me permission," recollects Kamalpreet.

The Punjab athlete secured the Olympic ticket in her first throw, but fouled her next five attempts. "I got overwhelmed by the fact that I have qualified for the Olympics. I got excited and lost my concentration," said Kamalpreet.

Kamalpreet is the 10th Indian to secure the Tokyo Olympic quota. Five race walkers (KT Irfan, Sandeep Kumar, and Rahul Rohilla in the men's 20km event, and Bhawana Jat and Priyanka Goswami in the women's 20km event), two javelin throwers (Neeraj Chopra and Shivpal Singh), Avinash Sable (men's 3000m steeplechase), Murali Sreeshankar (men's long jump) and the mixed 4x400 metres relay team have already qualified.

Hima bags 200m gold

Hima Das of Assam won the women's 200m race with a new meet record time of 23.21 seconds. Hima, who has a personal best time of 23.10 seconds, is yet to qualify for the Olympics. The Olympic qualifying mark is 22.80 seconds.

Tamil Nadu's Dhanalakshmi Sekar, who stunned Hima in the 100m sprint, had to settle for the silver with a time of 23.39 seconds. Archana Suseendran of Tamil Nadu finished third with 23.60s.