In her first major appearance on the track after being cleared of a doping charge and getting back her Busan Asian Games medals, Punjab's Sunita Rani failed to strike form finishing a poor fifth behind the winner Harjit Kaur in the 1500 metres in the 51st All India Police Athletics Championship at the Nehru stadium in Chennai on Sunday.

Sunita, looking out of sorts, was in the fourth position as the race began but fell back to fifth position in the last lap, never making an effort to pull herself up. ''I am totally out of practice,'' Sunita said after the race, adding she had not been training after being caught in the doping imbroglio.

Sunita skipped the first major event at home, the Hyderabad National Games after her Busan medals were taken away.

While winner Kaur clocked 4:30.16, another junior international K D Suma (4:33.13) of CRPF was second and K P Sudha, also of the CRPF (4:35.02) bagged the bronze.