Salinas (US) (PTI): Discus thrower Krishna Poonia attained a personal best of 63.74m in the third meet of the USATF Discus Development Series held at Hartnell Junior College ground here.

Poonia has already qualified for the Olympics and is training here with 1976 Olympic Gold medallist US discus thrower Mac Wilkins. The 31-year-old from Rajasthan has been training in Concordia University at Portland since February.

Meanwhile, Vikas Gowda, who had set a national record of 64.96m at the same place a year ago, failed to take advantage of the windy conditions and finished second in Group B and fifth overall with 64.83m, 13cm short of his National record.

Gerd Kanter and Stephanie Trafton set the world leading mark with 71.88m and 66.17m respectively in this meet.

RESULTS:

MEN:1. Gerd Kanter (Estonia) 71.88m WL, 2. Mart Israel (Estonia) 65.03m, 3. John Godina (adidas) 64.99m, 4. Benn Harradine (Australia) 64.95m, 5. Vikas Gowda (India) 64.83m, 6. Casey Malone (Nike) 64.56m, 7. Brian Trainor (unattached) 64.32m, 8. Niklas Arrhenius (Sweden) 63.72m

WOMEN: 1. Stephanie Trafton (USA) 66.17m WL, 2. Krishna Poonia (India) 63.74 PB, 3. Anna Soderberg (Sweden) 61.58m, 4. Cecelia Barnes (unattached) 59.35m, 5. Kelechi Anyanwu (unattached) 57.24M.