Indian shot putter Shakti Singh and quarter-miler Paramjit Singh performed far below their best and crashed out at the Olympic Games athletics championship which started in Sydney today.

National men`s shot put record holder Shakti Singh finished a lowly 17th in group a of the qualifying round, by hurling the iron ball to a distance of 20.09 m, and failed to advance.
John Godina, who hurled the shot to 20.58 m, led the field in group a with-fellow American Adam Nelson following him with a 20.12 m effort.
The minimum distance needed for qualifying was 20.10 m.
Paramjit Singh, who had lowered the long-standing 400m national record of `flying sikh` Milkha Singh a couple of years ago, also turned in a disappointing run in the men`s one-lap race and clocked 46.64 secs while finishing sixth in the first round heat 6. He was off his national mark by almost a full second and also failed to qualify for the second round. Nine heats were conducted in the first round with the top three in each heat and the next five fastest making it to the next round.
The other Indian in fray in shot put, Bahadur Singh also made his exit from the event.
Placed in Group B, Bahadur logged a distance of 18.70 metres and was eliminated. The group winner was Arsi Harju of Finland (21.39m), followed by Ukrainian Yuriy Bilonog (20.53m). On the other hand world champions Maurice Greene and Michael Johnson left the opening session of Olympic track with a smile today. Czech 800 metre champion Ludmila Formanova hobbled off with a grimace.
Formanova dropped out of her heat when an old foot injury acted up again. “I wanted to break the physical pain barrier because the whole season I have been preparing for the Olympics,” she said. Once into the second lap, the pain became unbearable as the swelling in her left ankle got worse.
In the 100, Greene breezed to an easy victory in 10.31 seconds in his first-round heat today, then strutted and waved to the crowd. He slowed significantly toward the end of his heat. Greene, who holds the world record of 9.79 seconds, failed to qualify for the 1996 Olympics and drove 18 hours from his home in Kansas City to Atlanta to see the Games. During the 100m final, he sat in the stands and cried uncontrollably.
Bureau Report