India’s Tintu Luka produced her season’s best timing but still finished sixth in the second heat of the women’s 800m semifinals to crash out of the London Olympics on Thursday.
Luka clocked 1:59.69secs to finish sixth in heat number two, from which Caster Semenya (1:57.67) of South Africa and Russia’s Elena Arzhakova (1:58.13) qualified to the finals.
The top two in each of the three heats and the two fastest losers advance to the finals.
Luka was 0.52 seconds off her personal best but it was a vast improvement than her show in the first round heats on Wednesday. She had qualified for the women’s semifinals after finishing third in heat two, clocking 2:01.75s.
