Greece expects medal success, possibly even multiple medal success in this event, and Greece looks likes it will be granted its wish in the final tomorrow night (21 August), as their top two exponents qualified automatically for the final (62.50 or above guaranteed a place) and in some style.
Overall, there were seven automatic (62.50 or above) qualifiers tonight. Remarkably, considering the competition commenced at 2315hrs three of these throwers came from the second of the two qualification pools, as the women must have felt a little jaded by this late hour schedule.
The four automatic qualifiers from Pool A, were IAAF World Rankings event leader Vera Pospisilova-Cechlova of the Czech Republic (64.48), Russia’s 2001 World champion and 1996 Olympic silver medallist Natalya Sadova (64.33), 1997 World gold medal winner Beatrice Faumuina of New Zealand (64.07), and the European champion Katerini Voggoli from Greece (63.39).
All of these four throwers currently hold positions in the top eight of the world season’s list and so their qualification was expected, and so was the noise of the crowd that greeted Voggoli, 33, the national record holder, as she prepared to throw.
Joining her in the final from Pool B is her compatriot Anastasia Kelesidou, the Sydney silver medallist. She also qualified in similar style with 64.13 but one felt that the roar that accompanied her throw was even greater, and we can expect even greater decibels when the two national heroines line up tomorrow night for the final (Sat 21). Kelesidou, 31, will no doubt be praying that she can progress past her run of three silvers in global finals - 1999 Worlds, 2000 Olympics, 2003 Worlds.
Amazingly the hosts will have a full trio in the final, as Stiliani Tsikouna who has a personal/season’s best of 65.25m, did enough to slip into one of the top twelve final spots with 61.72 thrown from the second pool.
Heading that group was Ukraine’s Olena Antonova with 64.20. The fourth placer in the Paris Worlds last summer, the 32 year-old did not qualify for the final in the 2004 Games.
World champion Irina Yatchenko of the Belarus looked a bit sluggish this evening but given the hour of the night that she was competing that is not meant as any criticism just an observation. In any case her second round 63.04m was way over what was needed to proceed directly to tomorrow’s final.
The other qualifiers were Nicoleta Grasu of Romania (61.91) and Poland's Joanna Wisniewska (61.48) from the first group, while Cuba's Yania Ferrales (61.54) and Yanfeng Li of China (61.45) came successfully though from the other pool.
Of the notable non-qualifiers both came from the first pool. It was not a surprise that Sydney Olympic champion Ellina Zvereva of Belarus, at the age of 43 and after a generally low key season altogether, failed to qualify (60.63m). After the demise of Poland’s Szymon Ziolkowski in the men’s Hammer this morning, it was not a good day for reigning Olympic champions in the throws!
Another former big name out of contention was Germany’s 1998 European champion Franka Dietzsch who was way down with 58.12.
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