Lalita Babar 10th in Steeplechase; Maheswary, Nanda flop

Lalita Babar failed to reproduce her fine showing in the qualification round and finished 10th in the women's 3000m Steeplechase final as Indians continued to disappoint in track and field at the Rio Olympics on Monday.

Babar clocked 9:22.74 seconds, nearly three seconds outside her National record of 9:19.76s, set in the qualification round on Saturday.

Despite her 10th finish, her effort was still the best performance by an Indian in a track event, after P T Usha's fourth-place finish in the 400m hurdles in 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

The 27-year-old from the drought-prone Satara district in Maharashtra is the second Indian woman after Usha in the 1984 Los Angeles Games to qualify for a final at a track event at the quadrennial extravaganza.

Kenyan-born Ruth Jebeth of Bahrain, the pre-event favourite, won the gold in 8:59.75s, less than a second outside the World record timing of 8:58.81s.

2015 World Championships gold winner Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkomoi of Kenya took the silver in 9:07.12s while American Emma Coburn won the bronze in 9:07.63s.

Meanwhile, triple jumper Renjith Maheswary's flop show on the big stage continued as he failed to make it to the final round after finishing 30th overall out of 48 competitors in qualification with a pedestrian best effort of 16.13m.

The 30-year-old Kerala athlete had made the Rio Olympics cut on the last day of the qualification period on July 11 at the hurriedly arranged Indian Grand Prix with a jump of 17.30m.

In the women's 200m, India's Srabani Nanda finished sixth out of eight competitors in heat number five with a timing of 23.58 seconds. She has a personal best of 23.07s.

The Odiya girl finished 55th overall out of 72 competitors.

• The Rio Olympics, on Rediff.com