Australia's Jemima Montag has finished a creditable fourth in the women's 20-kilometre walk at the World Athletics Championships in Eugen, Oregon.
Montag said she felt she would have claimed third spot from flagging China's Qieyang Shijie — who finished 21 seconds ahead of the Australian — had the race gone for another couple of laps.
But rather than bemoaning what might have been, Montag was focusing on the upside after clocking 1 hour, 28 minutes and 17 seconds — a time that would have won gold at five of the previous 11 world championships.
"In Little Athletics years ago, there was a saying that 'fourth sucks' and they even used to print it on T-shirts," Montag said.
"Humans have just decided that 1-2-3 get medals and fourth is one spot away from that.
Montag is the reigning Commonwealth Games champion and her impressive CV also includes 10th spot at the 2019 world titles and sixth at last year's Tokyo Olympics.
"It feels exciting to go even better than in Tokyo," she said.
"I think at my age, if I can just chip away at each major, I'm one spot away from the podium now.
"I feel like if there were two more [one-kilometre] laps I could have caught third."
Peru's Kimberly Garcia Leon won the first gold of the championships in 1:26:58, ahead of fast-finishing Katarzyna Zdzieblo (1:27.31) from Poland.
Australian Bec Henderson was 20th in 1:34:38.
Pole vaulter Kennedy eyes off medal
Nina Kennedy only needed one attempt to clear 4.50m and book her spot in the women's pole vault final.
The Western Australian said a podium finish was not out of the question in Eugene.
"The competition right now is at an interesting place where on the day it could be anyone's gold, silver or bronze medal," Kennedy said.
"I am quietly confident going into the meet and I'm excited to see what happens."
Kennedy's teammate Henry Frayne also progressed to the final of the men's long jump, leaping 7.99m in the qualifying round.
Another Australian, Joel Baden, advanced to his first world championship final in the men's high jump.
Baden cleared 2.28m to earn his spot in the top 12 to contest the final.
Jessica Hull, Linden Hall and Georgia Griffith all qualified for the women's 1,500m semifinals, the first time three Australians have achieved the feat at the same World Athletics Championships.
Hull (4:04.68) was second in her heat behind Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon, while Hall (4:03.21) and Griffith (4:07.53) also managed top-three finishes in their respective preliminaries.
In the men's 100m, Rohan Browning failed to progress to the semifinals after finishing fifth in his heat in a sluggish time of 10.22.
Browning's countryman Jake Doran was sixth in his heat via a time of 10.29.
AAP/ABC
