Seema was unassisted on the field on Monday. There was no one around her to correct her mistakes during the throw as her coach (also husband) was not allowed to accompany her to Rio.
It was yet another case of a top Indian athlete performing below par here in the Rio Games. Asian Games gold medallist discus thrower Seema Punia finished 20th with a throw of 57.58 metres, much below her personal best of 64.84, and this has once again put a question mark the country's athletes.
Seema was unassisted on the field on Monday. There was no one around her to correct her mistakes during the throw as her coach (also husband) was not allowed to accompany her to Rio.
The 33-year-old came up with throw of 57.58m in her first attempt, similar to the one she did at Incheon. However, during the Asiad, her coach, Ankush Punia, was with her and he helped her make some last-minute corrections to reach 61.03m and secure gold. In Rio with no one to guide her, Seema fouled in her next attempt before finally hurling the disc to a distance of 56.78m to finish ninth in Group B qualification round and 20th overall.
"I also had a first bad throw in Asian Games. But the difference then was that I had someone standing next to me to point out my mistakes. Athletes cannot identify mistakes on their own during a competition but the presence of a coach can make a huge difference," said Seema after the event.
"There are about 20 different technical adjustments that a coach can point out to during the course of a competition. And that's how I improved in Asian Games. Here, it was as if am competing in nationals where there was no one to take care of me," added the athlete who has been at the logger heads with the Athletics Federation of India over this issue.
At a time when reports of Indian officials partying in Rio on public exchequer despite country's failure to even get a single medal has come in public eye, the sports ministry or the AFI may find it hard to explain why personal coaches were not allowed to accompany the athletes.
Yaime Perez of Cuba topped the qualification round with 65.38m, followed by Su Xinyue of China with 65.14m. Pre-event favourite and 2012 London gold medallist Sandra Perkovic of Croatia was third in the qualification round with 64.81m.
So far, only Lalita Babar has been able to reach the final round in women's 3000m steeplechase.
Two other Indian athletes, Srabani Nanda in women's 200m and triple jumper Renjith Maheshwary, also had early exits in the first round.
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