Athletics: Faumuina boosted by rival's pull out

Beatrice Faumuina pictured during the Syvia Potts Classic. Photo / Paul Taylor

Beatrice Faumuina's medal hopes at the Delhi Commonwealth Games improved dramatically last night with Australian discus world champion Dani Samuels' refusal to travel due to India due to safety concerns.

The youngest winner of the world title in Berlin last year, 22-year-old Samuels cited safety and health concerns for pulling out of the Australian team for New Delhi.

Her announcement came an hour before news broke of a footbridge collapsing near the main Jawaharlal Stadium, injuring at least 23 people.

Samuels, who has dominated Faumuina since the last Commonwealth Games in Melbourne four years ago, is ranked No 1 in the Commonwealth and had already beaten the New Zealander twice this season - at Christchurch in March and again in Sydney last week.

Faumuina, a two-time Commonwealth Games champion, was ranked fourth heading into her fifth Games and on current form seems unlikely to claim a third gold medal, despite Samuels' absence.

Defending Commonwealth champion Elizna Naude of South Africa is now installed as the gold medal favourite while the Indians also boast a strong contingent headed by Krishna Poonia.

Naude's best throw in 2010 is 64.49-metres; Poonia recorded 63.39m in April while Faumuina's longest effort was 61.10m at Wellington in January.

Samuels told team management she was concerned by the recent terrorist activity in New Delhi and the risk of disease.

The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper today reported the negativity surrounding Delhi had affected both her training and health - yesterday the focus was on the poor condition of the athletes village.

The area designated for New Zealand's athletes and officials was labelled as uninhabitable and they will be relocated.

Samuels is the first Australian athlete to withdraw from the Games on account of security and health concerns, her coach Denis Knowles was not surprised.

"There have been reports of possible terrorist activity and the outbreak of dengue fever, which is not a nice thing to get, and the Indian authorities are admitting this is the worst outbreak there for many years and the cases will get worse in October," Knowles said.

The shooting of two Taiwanese tourists on a Delhi bus on Sunday also had Samuels on edge - before yesterday's decision she had told people she planned to sit in an aisle seat while travelling to and from the venues on the team bus to enhance her chances of survival in the event of a terror attack.

After beating Faumuina and reigning Olympic champion Stephanie Brown-Trafton at an All Stars meet in Sydney last Wednesday, Samuels was relatively upbeat about her first trip to India although she did say she was planning to equip herself with a mosquito net to guard against dengue and a supply of canned salmon to reduce the risk of food poisoning.

Samuels only needed a throw of 61.90m to beat Faumuina and the American, in retrospect not a great sign.

Knowles said he noticed a change in Samuels' demeanour since her return from Europe a fortnight ago.

"Just before she competed (last week) I noticed a sense of frustration in everything Dani was doing," he said.

"At training she'd rush through things, she'd have one throw and then need to do it again, it was as though she needed to get out of there."

- NZPA