A throw of 66.59m — that is the personal best of discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur. That is the national record that belongs to the 25-year-old, and had she been able to match that on a rain-soaked evening in Tokyo on Monday, India would have won an elusive track and field Olympic medal.

But that was not to be. She finished sixth in her debut Games.

American Valarie Allman took the gold with a first round throw of 68.98m while Kristin Pudenz of Germany (66.86m) and reigning world champion Yaime Perez of Cuba (65.72m) won the silver and bronze, respectively. Sandra Perkovic of Croatia was fourth (65.01m).

Coming from a family of farmers in Punjab’s Kabarwala village, Kamalpreet finished second in the qualification round on Saturday with a best throw of 64m.

On Monday, her best throw of 63.70m in the third round saw her finish sixth and equal 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Krishna Poonia’s performance in the 2012 London Olympics.

Kamalpreet perhaps missed the reassuring presence of her personal coach, Rakhi Tyagi, by her side and looked somewhat nervous. Lacking international exposure — her only top level meet being the World University Games in 2017 — making it to the final was in itself creditable.

It was a tough competition for all the participants as it started to rain heavily towards the end of the second round. A slippery circle and humidity affected almost everyone.

With her right shoulder heavily strapped, Kamalpreet began with a 61.62m effort before fouling her next attempt. But she came up with a 63.70m throw in her third attempt, and finished sixth. That allowed her to take part in the second round of throws, where only the top eight qualified.

However, not much changed in the position of the throwers in the final three rounds. She fouled her fourth throw and then had a 61.37m in her penultimate attempt before sending the discus out of sector in the final one.