Faumuina doesn't step up to mark

Beatrice Faumuina's bid to qualify for August's world athletics championships took a mysterious twist when she failed to compete at a meeting in the United States.

Faumuina has been expected to line up in the discus competition at the Prefontaine meet in Oregon yesterday (NZ time) but was not listed among the seven-strong field headed by American Olympic champion Stephanie Brown-Trafton.

The 34-year-old's non-appearance caught Athletics New Zealand (ANZ) officials by surprise.

"I'm not sure what the story is, I thought she was competing," said ANZ convener of selectors Graham O'Brien.

Faumuina's Auckland-based coach Ross Dallow was unable to be reached for comment.

The prestigious Prefontaine competition was being targeted by Faumuina in her attempt to record a qualifying mark of 62 metres – a task that has proved far beyond her this season.

In her most recent outing in New York, the 1997 world champion had a best of 56.73m in finishing seventh.

Faumuina was left out of an initial nine-strong New Zealand squad named for the world championships in Berlin, Germany, from August 15-23.

She exceeded the B grade qualifying mark for Berlin when retaining her national title with a throw of 60.03m in Wellington earlier this year – but is considered experienced enough to require an A standard performance.

Faumuina, who finished a disappointing 28th at the Beijing Olympics last year, made her world championships debut in 1995 in Gothenburg, Sweden and has attended every world competition since then with the exception of Edmonton in 2001.

Faumuina and other New Zealand athletes hopeful of qualifying for the world championships have until July 27 to record the necessary times and distances.

- NZPA