Kelly Hetherington's second-fastest 800m run was still not enough to book the Australian a spot in the semi-finals at the world athletics championships.
The Victorian finished fifth on Thursday in two minutes 1.57 seconds in a heat won by Eunice Sum from Kenya in 2:00.49.
All of the other heat winners broke the two-minute barrier.
"It went as well as I could have hoped," said Hetherington.
"I finished strong, but the reality is that I don't have the pace that they did.
"This is my first championship and I have learnt a lot about how it all works.
"I better understand preparation for an event like this, have new ideas to take back to my training and have importantly learnt how to deal with my nerves.
"That's a good result in itself."
Melissa Breen's interrupted preparation caught up with her in the opening round of the 200m, the Canberra sprinter finishing last in her heat in 23.95.
Breen contracted a severe bout of food poisoning in Sri Lanka in May, which led to liver and kidney infections.
"It was always going to be tough but, from where I have come from in the last couple of months, I am very proud of where I got to today," said Breen.
"I know it wasn't fast and it certainly wasn't how I expected my world championships to play out after such great early-season form, but being here and representing Australia is something that's amazing."
Three-time world 200m champion Allyson Felix from the US was the fastest qualifier in 22.59.
Young Tasmanian Hamish Peacock struggled in the javelin qualifying round and was eliminated after finishing 27th overall with a best of 76.33m - well short of the PB of 81.14m he threw last month to force his way onto the Australian team.
"It was pretty ordinary from the start," he said.
"The first one didn't go anywhere and, from there, things only improved slightly.
"It's disappointing that it didn't happen today given what I threw to be here."
The leading qualifier was 2007 world champion Tero Pitkamaki from Finland with 84.39m.
