Vikas Gowda finish poor 6th, Pinki fails to qualify

Melbourne, Mar 23 (UNI) Young thrower Vikas Gowda's tryst with the Commonwealth Games ended in disaster as he finished a poor sixth in his pet Discus event while Pinki Pramanik clocked her personal best and yet failed to qualify for the finals of the Women's 800m competition here today.

Much was expected from Vikas who had made the discus final with a 60.35m throw in the qualifying round. But today, the strapping thrower came up with a below par show and had a throw of 60.08, that too in his fifth attempt.

US-based Vikas, son of former India coach Shive Gowda, fouled his first attempt, then had a throw of 56.20 but he again failed in his third attempt.

In his fourth and fifth attempts, he had cleared the distance of 59.90 and 60.08 before fouling his last attempt.

The gold went to Australia's Scott Martin who had a throw of 63.48, which came off his last attempt. The silver went to Jason Tunks with 63.07 and bronze to Dariusz Slowick (61.49), both from Canada.

Also ahead of Vikas were Johannes Hopley of South Africa (60.99) and Carl Myercough of England (60.64).

In the qualifier, Jason Turks had a best throw of 64.07 and Australian star Scott Martin was next best with 60.63.

Vikas came into the limelight during the Athens Olympics and he had a career-best throw of 64.69 at Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. A repeat performance of that would have earned him a gold here.

Last year Vikas had a throw of 62.04m at World Athletics meet in Helsinki and that mark was better than the bronze medal winning effort here this evening.

Vikas who also took part in the Shot Put event here where he finished fifth.

Meanwhile, in Women's 800m, Pinki Pramanik timed her personal best of 2:03.83s in the second semifinal to finish fifth in the field of eight runners and failed to qualify.

Twenty-year-old Pinki ran well in a very strong field and improved upon her three-year old personal best time of 2:09.84 which she had clocked in Canada but her show today was not sufficient to get her into the final.

Janeth Jepkosgei of Kenya topped her group of eight runners with 2:01.34 and was followed by Canada's Diane Cummins (2:01.58) and Jemma Simpson (2:01,78).

In the men's 200m Elite Athletes with Disability (EAD) T46 final, India's Girraj was disqualified because of a false start. Heath Francis (Australia) won the gold in 22:96, followed by South African David Rose (23.12) and Nigerian Vitalis Lanshima (23.16).

UNI HSB AY BS1911