Paula Radcliffe suffered more Olympic agony as she dropped out of the 10,000m final with eight laps remaining.
Radcliffe, who failed to finish the marathon on Sunday, managed to stay with the leaders in the early stages.
But she started to slip back with 12 of the 25 laps left and after dropping 50m behind, stepped into the infield, her Olympic dream shattered once again.
China's Xing Huina was the shock winner with Ethiopians Ejagayehu Dibaba and Tulu Derartu second and third.
The British runner was racing just five days after quitting the marathon in tears, and was unable to salvage anything but pride.
"I actually felt better within myself but my legs just hadn't recovered from the marathon," she said.
"There was just nothing in there. I thought I could keep running even pace but my quads just tightened.
"They just kept coming on and on. I felt I was moving back up to the leaders but they just tightened again."
Radcliffe insisted she had no regrets about racing, despite many leading pundits doubting the wisdom of her decision.
"Mentally, the best thing for me was to get back out there and run hard," she said.
"That was the best way to get over the disappointment of the marathon but physically my body just hadn't recovered.
"I don't have regrets. I would rather have been in there and known the answer rather than watching it on TV and wondering 'What if?'
"I need time to get over the devastation here but I'll be back."
After coming into the games as Britain's best hope for gold however, the 30-year-old admitted the last six days have been "the lowest of the low".
"It has totally crushed me emotionally," she added. "I am going to have to give my body time to get over that.
"The support was amazing and I had to get out there and try, but I am gutted."
At the front, Xing Huina ran a brilliant race to take gold when it seemed certain that Ethiopia would maintain its stranglehold over the event.
Defending champion Tulu was well placed with 400m to go and looked as if she would sprint clear to gold as she had done in Sydney.
Xing stunned the favourites
But Xing Huina accelerated past Dibaba coming into the home straight to stun the Ethiopians.
Afterwards however, Dibaba was convinced she had won gold, thinking that Xing was a lapped runner and refused to accept for several minutes that she had come second.
"I didn't see where the Chinese girl came from," she explained, adding that she thought she could have overtaken Xing had she known.
The Ethiopians said they had been looking out for the other Chinese runner, world bronze medallist Sun Yingjie, and had not paid attention to Xing.
Britain's other representative, Kathy Butler, finished an excellent 12th.