In one of her worst performances in an international meet, Susmita Singha Roy finished 26th and last among those who completed the heptathlon in the World athletics championships on Sunday.
Susmita had a tally of 4983 points, as against her personal best of 6027, recorded in Bangalore last year, as she wound up a most forgettable debut in the World championships.
It was only poorer to her 2006 Commonwealth Games score of 4420 (11th place). In none of the seven events did she post even a season best, leave alone a personal best, as she struggled from day one to face the best in the world. She had a season best of 5366 points.
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Apparently nursing a hamstring injury, Susmita had the following marks: 100m hurdles,14.55s (902 points): high jump, 1.62m (759); shot put, 11.15m (605), 200m, 25.65s (828); long jump, 5.43m (680); javelin 36.03 (591), 800m, 2:36.13 (618).
Despite showing indifferent form this season, Susmita was chosen in the Indian team on the basis of her achievement last year and her potential to win a medal in the Commonwealth Games here next year.
As it turned out, apart from champion Jessica Ennis of Britain, who won with a personal best, world-leading mark of 6731 points, two other Commonwealth athletes finished ahead of Susmita.
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Briton Louise Hazel had 6008 points while coming 14th while Candain Brianne Theisen had 5949 points in finishing 15th.
Ennis was followed by Jennifer Oeser of Germany (6493) who overhauled Poland’s Kamila Chudzik (6471) in the last event, the 800 metres.
Olympic champion Natalia Dobrynska of Ukraine finished fourth with 6444 points. Three of the starters gave up at various stages, but Bettie Wade of the US, despite a ‘no mark’ in shot put, managed to avoid the wooden spoon, finishing 24th with 5134 points.