Puhakka narrowly misses out on final place in springboard diving

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Joona Puhakka, regarded by some as having an outside chance of a medal in the springboard diving at the Beijing Olympics, was narrowly eliminated from the men's 3-metres springboard event at the semi-final stage this morning.
      Puhakka slipped up in his fifth dive, scoring only 66.30 points, by comparison with the 87.50 he received for the same dive in the qualifying round on Monday.
     
After the points for all six dives were tallied, Puhakka was in 13th place, with just 12 competitors progressing to the final later today.
      He scored at total of 451.95, some 18 points less than the same dives had brought him in the qualifying competition, where he had finished a promising 5th of the 29 entrants. Just 2.35 points separated him from qualification for the final.
     
Later today, Kyra Kyrklund (dressage) and Frantz Kruger (men's discus) will be in action in Olympic finals.
      Mikaela Ingberg, on the other hand, will not be competing again in Beijing. She could finish no better than 17th in the women's javelin qualifying round, and will not be present at the final.
      Her best throw of 58.82 metres fell just over a metre short of the 60.13 that would have been required to progress.
      Ingberg was taking part in her fourth Olympics, a record for a Finnish woman in track and field. She placed 7th in her event in Atlanta in 1996.
     


Links:
  Beijing Olympics: Joona Puhakka
  Finnish Olympic Team site

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