Barnet narrowly missed out on a gold medal in the World Indoor Athletics Championships after Catherine Murphy finished a gallant fourth in the women's 400m final in Birmingham on Sunday.

The Shaftesbury Barnet star clocked a season's best time of 51.99secs. Russia's Natalya Nazarova took the race in 50.83secs.

In what was a rough race, Murphy said she was not too downcast by finishing out of the medals. "I am a litle bit disappointed but it was a bit bumpy and we all had to drop our stride at some point. I thought I had an outside chance of a medal but I would have needed a massive personal best to do it."

The 28-year-old was also denied a medal in the 4x400m relay when anchoring the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team to fourth just 0.49 seconds outside the bronze medal position.

Barnet-based Jo Fenn, who runs for Woodford Green Essex Ladies, finished a fine fifth in the women's 800m final. Having held a good position throughout, Fenn was outpaced in the home straight when posting a time of 1min 59.95secs. Fenn looked on as Mozambique's Maria Mutola claimed the fifth world indoor gold medal of her career.

Speaking after the race, Fenn said: "It is a real disappointment. I was feeling really comfortable but just ran out of legs."