Sonia O'Sullivan made a tearful exit after what looked like her final appearance at a World Championships.

Ireland's undisputed queen of running rounded off a miserable season - which began with her missing the first four months with an Achilles injury - by trailing home a distant last in the final of the 5,000 metres in the Stade de France in Paris.

The Olympic 5,000m silver medallist holds every Irish record at distances from 800m to half marathon, but she looked a shadow of her former self as she clocked 15 minutes 36.62 seconds and at the age of 33 it may well be her final World Championship appearance.

Earlier in the week O'Sullivan notched a season's best of 14mins 55.50secs to qualify for the final, but last night's time was nearly a minute behind Ethiopian winner Tirunesh Dibaba, who is just 18-years-old.