THEY SAY that finishing fourth in the Olympics is the loneliest place in all of sport, the deepest abyss imaginable between success and failure. Eoin Rheinisch went there yesterday, felt the inevitable pain and disappointment, then turned it into pride.
Maybe that was the only way of dealing with it. Rheinisch had, after all, defied every expectation by coming so, so close to winning Ireland's first medal in Beijing in his event, the kayak slalom, and in reality it was still a fantastic result.
Oh, but what could have been? The 28-year-old from Kildare may have been riding his luck over the past two days - first in making the semi-final, and then the final - but in the end, his luck just ran out.
Although the whole purpose of whitewater kayaking is to generate a thrilling ride, none of us who made the trip to Shunyi Park just north of Beijing had anticipated a thrill quite like this - and that includes Rheinisch himself. So, he had good reason to feel proud.
It was just heartbreaking to see his bronze medal finally slip away when the last competitor, Benjamin Boukpeti, eclipsed Rheinisch's time of 176.91 seconds, to win a first Olympic medal of any colour for the small west African nation of Togo.
"I don't want to beat myself up, and I won't," said Rheinisch. "I am actually happy. If someone had told me yesterday that I was going to come fourth I would find it hard to believe, especially after I pulled it back from the situation I was in. At first it was a little bit disappointing, because I was close to a medal but I am so happy, I really am."
Considering Ireland has no whitewater venue, forcing Rheinisch to spend more than two-thirds of the year training overseas, it may well be one of Ireland's best ever Olympic results. Will he try to go one better in London in four years' time? "Well, I will tell you that in a few weeks."
Find out how Andrew Bree got on in the 200m breaststroke semi-final at www.irishtimes.com