Yelena Isinbayeva pushed her gamesmanship one step too far on Tuesday and crashed out of the world women's pole vault, a competition won by Brazil's Fabiana Murer.
Murer, who was fifth at the Berlin worlds in 2009, managed a best of 4.85m, with Germany's Martina Strutz taking silver (4.80m) and Russia's Svetlana Feofanova claiming bronze (4.75).
Isinbayeva had to be content with a hugely disheartening sixth placing after just one successful vault. "I'm disappointed but I'm now focusing on next year's Olympic Games," said the two-time Olympic and double world champion.
"It was just a mistake," she said. "I'm trying to forget everything that happened here today and I'll go to London with everything in my memory deleted."
The Russian, whose world record stands at 5.06m, denied that she had been out of form, and said: "My condition was very good … There's still more to come."
She had looked in good form in the heats, albeit landing just one vault at 4.55m to qualify, but she overplayed her hand in the final.
The 29 year old came in at 4.65m and sailed over. Passing at 4.70m, she then bumped the bar off at 4.75m, but rather than retrying at that height went up to 4.80m and failed with all three of her vaults.
Her fall from grace mirrored that of Australia's Steve Hooker, the Berlin champion and Olympic gold medallist who did not even make the final, crashing out in heats after failing to register a single vault.
