BEIJING 2008:THE OLD GODS of Olympia got a little restless yesterday and turned their attention to the meek and heroic. There is no failure, they whispered. Only when you quit. Hear it, those of you with reason on your side.

At 7.30 yesterday morning the streets of Beijing were ready for the first great endurance test of the Olympics, although it didn't exactly prove that. Instead of 26.2 miles in the oppressive heat and smog of the Chinese capital it was actually cool and positively autumnal.

Pauline Curley joined the field of 82 runners for the start at Tiananmen Square and said a quick a prayer. Three weeks ago she was on holiday in Spain when she got the call-up to join the Irish team for Beijing. A week ago she was training in the heat of Japan and struggling to run 30 minutes. So she started slowly.

She finished two hours, 47 minutes and 16 seconds later, in 63rd position. She fell to her knees and kissed the track - then waved her arms to the crowd. There must have been 50,000 in the Bird's Nest at that early hour, including her seven-year-old son, Emmet, and they almost all reacted as if she had won a medal.

Several hours later, when exiting the stadium, Curley was embraced by a group of family and friends that had made the long trip from Tullamore. She was the only truly amateur member of the Ireland team, and next month she will return to her job as chef at Café 4 You in Tullamore. For now, she was an Olympic champion.

Several local onlookers assumed as much, and started to gather around Curley, posing with her for photographs.

"I actually feel like I've won it," she said. "Coming into the stadium there was just electrifying.

"I just really enjoyed it. Fantastic. That moment, when I crossed the line, kissed the ground, that was always my dream. And now I've been through it, when all my life I never thought I would. I just hope that proves you should never give up on your dream.

"I was in the stadium last Friday and I cried. I just wanted to finish in here so, so badly. I knew I had to finish. Last week, training in Japan, it was very hot. I was running a half an hour each morning, and struggling to get through that. I was thinking how am I going to run 26 miles in this. But the weather was so nice out there, great.

"So I was very, very nervous at the start. I know it was outside my best, but my aim was to finish, I had to finish. And thankfully I was able to enjoy it."

Paula Radcliffe also joined the field at Tiananmen Square, despite just two months ago being given a 50 to 1 chance of doing so.

She is 34, and this was arguably her last shot at that elusive Olympic medal. Her world record of 2:15.25 is still almost four minutes quicker than the next-best women's time. She finished in 23rd position in 2:32.38

Not even the world-record holder can medal in the Olympic marathon on one leg and off two weeks' proper training.

At the halfway mark Romania's Constantina Tomescu decided enough was enough and moved to the front. She was let go partly because at 38, she was the second-oldest woman in the race. Curley, at 39, was the oldest.

When they started to chase Tomescu it was too late, and she won the gold medal in 2:26.44, the second-slowest women's Olympic winning time ever.

Not that it mattered. The old gods of Olympia must have been feeling a little mischievous. At 38, she is the age Radcliffe will be in London in four years' time. The English woman's Olympic odyssey will surely continue for another four years.

"I just didn't have enough running," she said, holding back the tears, her medal challenge ending before it even began.

"The conditions weren't a problem at all. I felt comfortable early on. It started in the calf muscle, and moved into my quad. It wasn't a sharp pain, but the calf got so bad, I had to stop. It was really sore, and I ended up running on one leg.

"I really wanted to finish, I just couldn't go any quicker. I knew all along that coming here was a gamble, and the frustrating thing is, cardiovascular wise, I was okay . . ."

And she broke down in tears.

"I just wanted to finish, no matter what. It would have been horrible to drop out."

There is no failure at the Olympics. Only if you quit.

Yesterday's big medal winners  Track and field

Men's 10,000m final

1 - Kenenisa Bekele (Eth) 27:01.17; 2 Sileshi Sihine (Eth) 27:02.77; 3 Micah Kogo (Ken) 27:04.11.

Men's Hammer Throw final

1 - Primoz Kozmus (Slo) 82.02m; 2 Vadim Devyatovskiy (Blr) 81.61m; 3 Ivan Tsikhan (Blr) 81.51m.

Women's 100 metres final

1 - Shelly-Ann Fraser (Jam) 10.78; 2 Kerron Stewart (Jam) 10.98; 3 Sherone Simpson (Jam) 10.98.

Women's 3,000 metres Steeplechase final

1 - Gulnara Galkina-Samitova (Rus) 8:58.81, 2 Eunice Jepkorir (Ken) 9:07.41, 3 Ekaterina Volkova (Rus) 9:07.64.

Women's Marathon

1 - Constantina Tomescu (Rom) 2h26:44; 2 Catherine Ndereba (Ken) 2h27:06; 3 Zhou Chunxiu (Chn) 2h27:07.

Women's Triple Jump final

1 - Francoise Mbango Etone (Cmr) 15.39 (Wind speed: +0.5)m; 2 Tatyana Lebedeva (Rus) 15.32; 3 Hrysopiyi Devetzi (Gre) 15.23.