Ace Indian discus thrower Krishna Poonia recorded her season's best performance to win a gold medal in the Annual Athletic Meet at Portland in the United States.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Poonia, taking part in the first competition of her training stint in the USA, hurled the discus to 58.88m, her best effort of the season, to bag the yellow metal.
She had four throws above 58m while her two efforts recorded 57.61m and 57m.
"After a long lay-off due to knee injury, I am really happy to win such a prestigious competition as it was my first competition during my training-cum-competition programme in USA this year," Poonia, who is training under 1976 Montreal Olympic champion Mac Wilkins and husband Virender, said.
"I was reluctant to participate as I was not confident of my performance after a long break in my training due to knee injury. But my husband pushed me on and I am satisfied with my performance.
"Since reaching USA on July 12 I am on a tough training program not less than seven hours a day. My aim is to achieve not only B but A qualification mark for London Olympics before I return back to India in November. This win will boost my confidence," she said.
Poonia, who is training at the Throws Centre at Concordia University at Oregon, will take part in another event at Portland next month.
In October, she will participate in another IAAF-approved event at Chula Vista in California, where she recorded her personal best of 63.69m in April last year.
Three years ago, Poonia fine-tuned her throwing techniques under Wilkins and it helped her qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Poonia won a silver with a below-par 55.45m in her first competition of the season in the National Inter-State Meet in Bangalore in June. She finished fourth with an effort of 56.23m in the Asian Championships in Kobe, Japan early last month.
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