Athens: India's dreams of a second Olympic medal to go with shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore's silver remained unfulfilled on the eighth day with the country facing one setback after another Athens.

Two Indian athletes, heptathlete J J Shobha and discus thrower Anil Kumar, had to be stretchered out after picking up injuries in their events.

Fervent hopes that one-lap racer K M Binu would live up to the promise he showed in the first round heats of the men's 400 metres, when he broke the four-year-old national record of Paramjit Singh while qualifying for the semi-finals, came to a nought when the 24-year-old lost tamely in the penultimate round.

Binu had a sluggish start from which he couldn't recover and despite making a belated attempt to catch the lead runners, could finish only seventh in a slow 45.97 seconds. He had clipped eight-hundredths of a second off the previous mark while qualifying for the semis in 45.48.

"It was a tough competition with top athletes. I knew it would be difficult for me, but I tried my best," he said after the race.

Heptathlete Shobha picked up a ligament injury near her left knee in the sixth and penultimate event, the javelin throw. She soldiered on bravely to complete the contest by running the 800 metres in which she finished third in her heat with the injured leg and ended up 11th with a points accumulation of 6172.