By Mitch Phillips
PARIS (Reuters) - Valarie Allman of the United States underlined her status as the hot favourite to retain her Olympic discus title when she led qualifying with a 69.59 metre throw on Friday.
Allman followed her Tokyo gold with back-to-back world titles and is unbeaten this season.
Former double Olympic and world champion Sandra Elkasevic of Croatia (65.63), Feng Bin of China (65.40), Jorinde van Klinken of the Netherlands (64.81) and Moldovan Alexandra Emilianov (64.33) also went through to Monday's final, as did Vanessa Kamga on the back of a Swedish national record of 65.14.
France’s 2016 Olympic silver medallist Melina Robert-Michon marked her record-equalling seventh Olympics by throwing a season's best 63.77 to also reach the final.
The 45-year-old, a flag bearer for the host nation at the opening ceremony, equals Merlene Ottey's record number of appearances for a woman in track and field at the Olympic Games.
American Veronica Fraley, who benefited from some high-profile financial backers, missed the cut by a single spot, finishing 13th overall.
Hip-hop star Flavor Flav and Alexis Ohanian, the Reddit co-founder and husband of tennis great Serena Williams, split the cost of Fraley's rent after she made a public appeal yesterday.
One notable absentee from the event was Yaime Perez, the owner of the best throw of the year and longest since 1989.
She is ineligible as she is currently in the international wilderness after defecting from Cuba to the United States two years ago. Her 73.09 throw in April is more than two metres longer than the best of Allman, the only other athlete to go beyond 70 metres this year.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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