India's Rehan Poncha, 16, on Sunday disappointed with a miserable performance in the world swimming championship, where he finished 50th in the 400-m freestyle event at Barcelona.

Poncha, who had created quite a splash in the junior nationals held in New Delhi last month by winning four gold medals and setting new records, clocked 4 min 14.22 sec on Sunday to finish ahead of just eight swimmers in a field of 60.

He finished almost 30 seconds behind Australian champion swimmer Ian Thorpe, who was first in the qualifiers with a timing of 3:47.44.

Richa Mishra fared no better in the women's 100m butterfly event, though she did come close to the Olympic qualifying mark.

She finished 40th in the 100m butterfly qualifiers with a time of 1:06.08, which was about two seconds off the Olympic qualifying mark.

Karnataka girl Ambica finished seven places behind Richa with a time of 1:09.63 in the same event.

In the 4x100m freestyle relay for men, India finished 17th.

However, competitions are still to begin in the favourite events of both Poncha and Richa.