Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu disqualified in Daegu

Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu's 400 metres world championship hopes were swiftly snuffed out on Saturday when she was disqualified from the event for a false start in her heat.

The 27-year-old Briton appeared stunned in the 53,000-seater Daegu Stadium and had to be led off the floodlit track by a marshal. 

"I knew it was me, I just thought maybe, somehow, it might not have been," Ohuruogu, who was 400 metres world champion in Osaka in 2007 before sprinting to Olympic gold in Beijing the following year, told Channel 4 television. 

"I just wanted to get a good start. I knew it was going to be a fast round." 

Ohuruogu came to Daegu on a poor run of form and has appeared increasingly uncomfortable at being portrayed as a figurehead for the London 2012 Olympics.

She finished last at the recent London Diamond League meeting and missed 10 weeks of training this year due to a quadriceps injury which had ruled her out for much of last season.