By PA Sport Staff

Sydney's Jane Saville burst into tears after being disqualified just 150 metres from winning the 20Km Walk title in the Olympic Stadium on Thursday.

The Australian was given the red card for a third offence of running when she was in the tunnel which leads into the stadium with a winning advantage.

Saville wept uncontrollably and had to be comforted as he saw her dream of taking gold dashed while the around 50,000-plus crowd waiting to greet her victory were silenced.

China's Wang Liping was given a polite ripple of applause as she entered the stadium to win in one hour 29 minutes five seconds.

"I knew I had two (warnings)," Saville said. "You don't know where you get them, you just have red dots against your name and I knew I had two red dots.

"I came into the tunnel and slowed down. I saw the chief judge and he started touching his paddle and I thought 'No, no.'

"Then he had to check the number and it was me. What can you do? There is nothing I can do.

"I was embarrassed. It has been a dream of mine to walk into the stadium first. As I came down I was thinking, 'I can do this, I'm going to do it.' "Cest la vie."

In a dramatic race, Saville appeared to pick up one warning in farcical circumstances.

Italian Elisabetta Perrone was also thrown out of the race for lifting but, after stopping and waving her arms angrily in the air, she set off again, jogging up to Saville and then overtaking her.

Clearly shocked by Perrone's presence, Saville herself was penalised for lifting.

As soon as she had got back in front Perrone voluntarily walked off the road to end a bizarre passage of the race.

Norway's Kjersti Plaetzer was second (1:29.33) with Maria Vasco of Spain third (1:30.23).

Ireland's Gillian O'Sullivan finished a fine 10th in 1:33.10 with team-mate Olive Loughnane (1:38.23) back in 35th spot.

Wolverhampton's Lisa Kehler finished in 33rd place in 1:37.47.