Ireland's first Olympic tri-athlete Emma Davis finished 37th of 55 in the final in Beijing this morning, eight minutes and one second behind winner Emma Snowsill of Australia.
Davis' recent progress in the event has been remarkable but the 22-year-old from Woking, Surrey, failed to reproduce the form that saw her take 15th in the World Championships in Vancouver in vastly different conditions in June.
Her emergence in the sport under guidance of coach and boyfriend Richard Stannard has seen her rise from 387th to as high as 46th, but it was Snowsill who set the standard today with a time of one hour 58 minutes and 27 seconds.
She made her move after the bike ride and wasted no time in putting some distance between herself and the field on the 10k run.
She finished 1:06 minutes ahead of Portugal's Fernandez, who had never been beaten over the Beijing course in three events.
Today, however, she couldn't cope with the pace of the 27-year-old Australian, whose compatriot Emma Moffett was third.
Snowsill, who divides her year training on the Gold Coast and in Colorado, would have had an even bigger winning margin had she not celebrated ecstatically with the Australian contingent in the crowd on the home stretch.
In contrast, Davis walked over the line in the end, clearly struggling from here exertions in the heat.
After emerging from the water in 37th, she made progress in the cycling and led the chasing pack at the end of the 40km ride. At one stage, she was as high as 21st but dropped back on the run as the heat took its toll.
"It was very tough but if it's not tough you're not working hard enough," Davis said afterwards. "I enjoyed parts of it. I enjoyed the start of the swim and some of the bike although we weren't working together as a pack but I knew if I wanted to catch the girls that I had to then I'd have to do some work.
"I did the best job that I could do and it worked, we caught a lot of the girls. I managed to do well in the transition as I had been told to by my coach and I did the best I could on the day.
"This time last year I wasn't going to be here and I've been in the Ireland team for less than a year, since September last year so I'm pretty new to it and I'm amazed I've not come last.
"You never know how things are going to turn out on the day and everyone's going to raise their game because this is the Olympics but I've worked hard all year and I couldn't put any more in the race than I did today. 37th was the best I could do so I've got to be happy with that."
