Athletics: Faumuina qualifies for discus final

New Zealand discus thrower Beatrice Faumuina this morning qualified for the Olympic Games final.

She qualified ninth, three places above out-of-sorts world champion Franka Dietzsch of Germany.

When her pool of 16 throwers came to the circle, hopes were high Faumuina would easily make the 12-thrower final.

Only Ellina Zvereva of Belarus from the first of two qualifying pools had automatically qualified for the final by throwing 63m-plus.

Those cracking 63m, or the first 12 qualifiers reach the final.

Faumuina, who has a 1997 personal best of 68.52m, has thrown 65.41m this year. She turned in a 63.90m throw in Sydney last week.

Australian thrower Daniela Costian, who was eliminated, told NZPA conditions were ``fine''.

She could not understand why distances were so far down.

``It seems everyone else was very bad, I don't know why,'' she said.

- NZPA