At the Nagai stadium under lights, the Indian ace could only manage a best of 6.53 metres and failed to progress to the next phase of the final, where only the top eight from among the 12 finalists featured. Defending champion Tianna Madison of US, who was 10th with 6.47M, was also eliminated after three jumps.
The event saw a podium sweep by the Russians. Olympic champion Tatyana Lebedeva scaled 7.03M to win the gold medal, followed by compatriots Lyudmila Kolchanova (6.92M) and Tatyana Kotova, who had a season's best of 6.90M.
Poor start
Anju got off to the worst possible start with a modest first attempt of 6.10M, taking off 23.3 cms away from the take-off board. Her next attempt was a foul. And the third, which also happened to be her last, yielded a clearance of 6.53M. Her season's best is 6.65M, while she had cleared 6.60M on Monday to qualify for the final.
This performance ranks the worst for her in World Championship history. After winning bronze in Paris in 2003, she was fifth in Helsinki two years ago.
“The final commenced with me running into the wind. It did not help. I thought it would be the other way round. Because of that, I had a low jump of 6.10 in my first attempt. The second was a foul and on the third try, I decided to play it safe and managed to reach 6.53," the 30-year-old said.
Lack of competition
She added that lack of competition before the World Championships had hampered her preparations. "I started a bit late this year and had only four competitions before arriving in Osaka," she added.
After returning to Bangalore, Anju said she would focus on training well for next year's Beijing Olympics.
"I am looking forward to the Olympics in Beijing next year. I will be back in Bangalore and will be training there," Anju said, trying to put this performance behind her and move on.
With Anju's exit, Indian hopes now rest with the women's 4x400 metres relay team. But one has to wait till Saturday to find out how they fare.