London Olympics: Krishna Poonia eyes 2016 Olympics

London: Ace discus thrower Krishna Poonia is satisfied with her seventh place finish at the London Games and said she will now aim to do better in the next Olympics in Brazil.

Poonia hurled the discus to a distance of 63.62m, which is more than a metre below her personal as well season`s best of 64.76m, but she said she was not disappointed with her performance. "It was a disaster in Beijing in 2008 and so I am satisfied with my seventh-place finish in London. It was a tough field and I had beaten the likes of 2008 Games champion (Stephanie Brown Trafton of United States) and former world champion Dani Samuels (of Australia)," Poonia told PTI. Poonia had failed to qualify for the final round in Beijing four years ago by finishing 10th in one group in the qualification round. "Every athlete wants to win an Olympic medal and I will continue to strive for it. Now I will take a break and then start training. My aim now is to do well in the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil," said the 30-year-old Poonia. The 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist said that failing to get a medal in the London Olympics would only spur her to do well in the upcoming events. "It happens in big events. You do well in some big events and fail in others. It happens. See Darya Pishchalnikova (of Russia), she was 11th in the World Championships last year and now she has won a silver in London. So I consider the seventh-place finish as an achievement which will give me confidence," said Poonia. Poonia looked subdued during the women`s discus throw event at the showpiece Olympic Stadium here and had just four legitimate throws as the other two were fouls. Asked why she was subdued, she said that it was due to the reason that she had to throw last in the 12-athlete field. "I had to do throw 12th and last and I don`t know why it was so. I think it was done in a random manner but I was not used to do that. I used to start early in most of the big events. I would have loved to throw a bit early in the order. But that did not have any effect on my performance," she said. Poonia rued that she could not better her personal best of 64.76m -- also the national record, which she did in May in the United States in the build-up to the Olympics. "I would have loved to cross my personal best but it did not happen. Olympics is the biggest event and it happens," she said. Her husband-cum-coach Virender said even former world champion Dani Samuels, who finished last in the 12-woman field, and congratulated Poonia her for her performance. "Dani came to meet Krishna and praised her for her performance. She apologised for challenging her for a discus throw contest after Krishna won gold in the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games," said Virender. 2009 World Championship winner Samuels had challenged Poonia for a unique USD 20,000 winner-takes-all discus throw contest between the two after the Indian had won the gold in the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, which though had never happened. PTI