Another bad day with Sonia O'Sullivan. Her challenge for the World 1,500 metres championship dissolved into chaos, controversy and uncertainty in Athens last night as she trailed home in eighth place.
Immediately afterwards she became tangled in a war of angry words and jabbed fingers with her rivals as the athletes sought to lay the blame for a pushing incident just over 200 metres before the finish.
O'Sullivan appeared to be the greatest victim of the disruption and blamed the jostling for her lacklustre finish.
Where it all leaves a career which has teetered on the brink of ruin in the 12 months since the Atlanta Olympics is still debatable.
In the aftermath O'Sullivan was feisty and defiant. She talked about how well she had felt until the bumping incident before the last bend, which upset the rhythm and tempo of a promising race which was eventually won by Carla Sacramento of Portugal
"There is no doubt about it," O'Sullivan said. "I was feeling great. I was in a good position with 200 metres to go and Anita Weyermann, who was in a bad position, decided to get out of there and pushed me. I was falling and I grabbed [Regina] Jacobs. I never got my rhythm back."
In the tunnel through which the athletes leave the track, the American runner Regina Jacobs confronted O'Sullivan and seemed quite uninterested in how well Sonia had been feeling.
The pair pushed each other and shouted before O'Sullivan caught sight of Anita Weyermann and angrily confronted the Swiss athlete.
Weyermann, who finished third, would make no comment on the incident afterwards. Regina Jacobs, despite taking a silver medal, roundly blamed O'Sullivan.
"I'm angry, very angry. I pushed her in the tunnel. If you do something as blatant as that you don't have to act up and make a big deal about it.
"She should have apologised to me. Sonia was falling, she said, and she grabbed my shirt and nearly took me out of the race."
"We were mad," O'Sullivan said of the incident in the tunnel. "We were both mad. It was one of those things. I don't remember what was said."
O'Sullivan initially asked to ask Irish team manager Nick Davis to lodge a protest on her behalf but later changed her mind. Despite the controversy, she remained upbeat and confident about her prospects.
"I felt good tonight. After the incident, when I saw with 100 metres to go that I wasn't going to get one, two or three, I tailed off."
O'Sullivan will now enjoy a day's rest and recuperation before competing as defending champion in the 5,000 metres semi-final on Thursday night. The final takes place on Saturday night.
Only then will we know if Sonia O'Sullivan is back in the land of the greats or not.