2009 World Championships in Athletics – Women's discus throw
Introduction The '''women's discus throw''' at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Olympic Stadium on August 19 and August 21.Reigning Olympic champion Stephanie Brown Trafton was the favourite for the gold. She had set a career best and had the four longest throws of any athlete that season, although she had not competed since late June. Franka Dietzsch was another prominent performer: the 41-year-old was the defending champion and was making her 10th appearance of the tournament, but a weak season had underlined her waning powers. Cuban Yarelis Barrios looked set to build upon her World and Olympic silver medals from the last two years and Aimin Song had also performed well during the season. Veteran athletes Nicoleta Grasu and Natalya Sadova were also favoured to be among the top performers of the competition.Chinese athletes led the qualification rounds with Ma Xuejun and Song topping their respective groups. Newcomers Żaneta Glanc and Dani Samuels rounded out the top four qualifiers. Dietzsch sole legal throw of the competition was not enough for qualification, leaving Nadine Müller as the only host competitor to make the final. Brown Trafton edged into the final, needing all three throws to qualify.In the final, Grasu and Barrios quickly established themselves with marks of 65.20 m and 64.44 m, respectively, in the first two throws. Samuels, Glanc and Müller proved themselves on their third attempts, each throwing over 62 metres. Brown Trafton and Ma Xuejun both threw poorly and were among the four athletes eliminated after three throws. Personal bests of 64.76 and 65.44 m in the fourth and fifth round put Samuels in the lead. On the final throws, Song threw only enough to move up to fifth place, leader Grasu fouled but Barrios responded, although her mark of 65.31 m guaranteed her only second place.Samuels was a surprise winner: at 21 years old, she was the youngest ever World discus champion, and she had progressed from Youth champion, to Junior winner, to the senior title in just four years. Barrios had matched her silver medal achievement at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and Grasu's bronze was her fourth medal in her career at the World Championships.
Medalists '''Gold''''''Silver''''''Bronze'''
Records '''World record''''''76.80'''Neubrandenburg, East Germany7 July 1988'''Championship record''''''71.62'''Rome, Italy31 August 1987'''World leading''''''66.21'''San Mateo, United States24 May 2009'''African record''''''64.87'''Stellenbosch, South Africa2 March 2003'''Asian record''''''71.68'''Beijing, China14 March 1992'''North American record''''''70.88'''Havana, Cuba8 May 1992'''South American record''''''61.96'''São Leopoldo, Brazil21 May 1998'''European record''''''76.80'''Neubrandenburg, East Germany7 July 1988'''Oceanian record''''''68.72'''Auckland, New Zealand22 January 1994
Qualification standards A standardB standard 62.00 m 58.50 m
Schedule  Date Time RoundAugust 19, 2009  '''10:10'''   '''Qualification'''August 21, 2009  '''20:20'''   '''Final'''
Results ===Qualification===Qualification: Qualifying Performance 61.50 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the final. Rank  Group  Athlete  Nationality  #1  #2  #3  Result  Notes    A  Ma Xuejun    '''63.38'''    '''63.38'''  Q, SB    B  Song Aimin       '''62.80'''  '''62.80''' Q    B  Dani Samuels    '''62.67'''    '''62.67'''  Q    B  Żaneta Glanc    49.79  '''62.43'''    '''62.43'''  Q    A  Yarelis Barrios        '''62.19'''   '''62.19'''  Q    A  Sandra Perković    61.02    '''62.16'''  '''62.16'''  Q    B  Natalya Sadova    '''61.94'''       '''61.94'''  Q    A  Nicoleta Grasu    60.25  '''61.78'''   '''61.78'''  Q   A  Nadine Müller    '''61.63'''    '''61.63'''  Q 10   B  Mélina Robert-Michon    58.36  '''61.53'''     '''61.53'''  Q 11   A  Stephanie Brown Trafton     60.15  57.44  '''61.23'''  '''61.23'''  q  12  B  Aretha Thurmond    60.09  59.09   '''61.08'''  '''61.08'''  q 13   B  Xu Shaoyang     59.67  '''61.02'''  57.96  '''61.02''' SB 14   B  Yarisley Collado    59.56  59.23  '''60.37'''  '''60.37'''  15   B  Seema Antil    '''59.85'''      '''59.85''' SB 16   A  Elizna Naudé    59.46  59.46  '''59.67'''  '''59.67'''  SB 17  A  Wioletta Potępa      '''59.54'''    '''59.54'''   18   B  Věra Pospíšilová-Cechlová    57.87  58.37  '''59.52'''  '''59.52'''   19   A  Dragana Tomašević    58.32  59.30  '''59.38'''  '''59.38'''  20   A  Svetlana Ivanova-Saykina    '''59.31'''    58.45  '''59.31'''  21   B  Joanna Wiśniewska       '''58.85'''    '''58.85'''  22   A  Becky Breisch     '''58.50'''    58.08  '''58.50'''  23   B  Franka Dietzsch        '''58.44'''  '''58.44'''  24   B  Vera Begić     54.63     '''58.25'''  '''58.25'''  25   A  Yania Ferrales    57.71  55.84  '''58.24'''  '''58.24'''  26    B  Anna Söderberg     56.38  '''57.92'''    '''57.92'''  27  A  Kateryna Karsak    '''56.79'''      '''56.79'''   28  A  Krishna Poonia        '''56.75'''  '''56.75'''  29   A  Elisângela Adriano    54.99  52.00  '''55.75'''  '''55.75'''  30    B  Rocío Comba    52.62  '''54.69'''     '''54.69'''  31   B  Zinaida Sendriute    52.85   '''54.55'''    '''54.55'''  32   A  Sofia Larsson     51.87     '''54.28'''  '''54.28'''  33    A  Olena Antonova       '''54.28'''    '''54.28'''  34   B  Li Wen-Hua     '''53.88''' 49.91  52.49  '''53.88'''  35    B  Kazai Suzanne Kragbé     52.24  '''53.84'''  52.79  '''53.84'''  '''NR''' 36    A  Venera Getova    '''53.33'''       '''53.33'''   37   B  Tereapii Tapoki      '''45.29'''     '''45.29''' SB    A  Ellina Zvereva           ''''''      B  Iryna Yatchenko           ''''''       B  Natalya Fokina-Semenova           ''''''  DNS===Final=== Rank  Athlete  Nationality  #1  #2  #3  #4  #5  #6  Result  Notes   Dani Samuels      59.05  62.71  64.76  '''65.44'''    '''65.44'''  PB   Yarelis Barrios    64.44  63.87  61.17      '''65.31'''  '''65.31'''  SB   Nicoleta Grasu      '''65.20'''  62.38  60.68  63.41    '''65.20'''  SB    Zaneta Glanc    58.69  59.83  '''62.66'''    57.71    '''62.66'''     Song Aimin    51.69  60.50  61.78    61.39  '''62.42'''  '''62.42'''     Nadine Müller    57.53  57.62  '''62.04'''  60.40      '''62.04'''    Natalya Sadova    60.70  '''61.78'''  59.31  60.44  58.26  61.44  '''61.78'''     Mélina Robert-Michon    59.80  '''60.92'''  60.89    59.90  59.69  '''60.92'''    Sandra Perković      '''60.77'''       '''60.77'''  10  Aretha Thurmond       '''59.89'''  59.88     '''59.89'''  11   Ma Xuejun    '''58.79'''    58.58     '''58.79'''  12  Stephanie Brown Trafton    '''58.53'''    57.94      '''58.53'''
References ;General* Discus throw results. IAAF. Retrieved on 2009-10-21.;Specific