Beijing, Aug 28 (IANS): Khushbir Kaur, India's national record holder in the women's 20 kilometre walk, finished a disappointing 37th at the World Athletics Championships here on Friday.
Khushbir completed the race in one hour, 38 minutes and 53 seconds. She crossed the five km mark in 23 minutes and 21:36 seconds and 10 km mark in 47 minutes and 26 42. She took an hour, 12 minutes and 38 seconds to go past the 15 km mark.
Her effort was way below then her personal best of 1:31:40. The 22-year-old from Amritsar had won the silver at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, clocking 1:33:07.
Kaur had finished 39th with 1:34:28 in the last edition of the Worlds at Moscow.
Sapna, the other Indian in the fray, was disqualified. Forty-nine walkers started and 42 completed.
China claimed its first gold medal in the championships as Liu Hong and Lyu Xiuzhi finished claimed the first and second position. While Hong clocked 1:27:45, Xiuzhi completed the race in 1:27:45.
Ukrainian Lyudmyla Olyanovska took the bronze medal in 1:28:13.