THE look of relief on the face of David Matthews was only thinly-veiled after he had secured the second last of 24 places in the second round of the men's 800 metres championship.

Matthews got in as one of the four fastest losers after being relegated to fourth place in the first heat, won by the Norwegian, Bjorn Rodal, in a time of 1 minute 46.76 seconds.

Overall, it was a disappointing performance by the UCD man and given the fact that he spent the last year in full-time training, much of it in the company of Kim McDonald's African troupe, it reflected little or no improvement.

At one point it looked as if he would catch the mature Brazilian, Jose Luiz Barbosa, for third place but he never threatened to make contact with the front two, Rodal and Curtis Robb.

Also through to the second round is the Waterford woman, Susan Smith, who displayed impressive technique in qualifying from the preliminaries of the 400 metres hurdles championship.

It was a mixed day for TJ Kearns, the mature DCH high hurdler, who is competing in his third consecutive Olympics. Kearns survived the morning heats when returning a time of 13.67 in scrambling into third place, but that was the limit of his progress.

Taking part in the second round of the competition, early this morning, he could finish only fifth in the heat won by the American Mark Crear. In this instance, however, defeat was tinged with the consolation of a national record of 13.55 seconds.

Kearns was quite the fastest of the eight starters to leave the blocks, but then, gradually, perhaps inevitably, he was caught as Crear and the German, Florian Schwarthoff, streaked clear to take their place in the semi-finals.

Earlier, Sean Cahill from Cushinstown failed to find anything extra on the big occasion and could manage a time of only 14.22 seconds in the first round heat, won by Schwarthoff.

Catherina McKiernan is looking forward to the prospect of returning to the Olympic Stadium for the final of the 10,000 metres in the early hours of next Saturday morning after qualifying, not without some discomfort, in the heats.

McKiernan finished sixth in a time of 32 minutes 32.10 seconds, more than 11 seconds slower than the winner, Gete Wami of Ethiopia, who led home her team-mate Birhane Adere and Spain's Juia Vaquero.

McKiernan had, at least, the consolation of beating the Chinese wonder woman, Junxia Wang, who drifted out of contention in the closing stages to finish seventh in the torrid conditions. Undoubtedly, with eight to finish, Wang was saving her energies for the 5,000 final.

Apart from the first lap, which she led, the Irish woman was always working hard to stay with the pace, but after receding to 11th of the 17 starters at one point, she gradually worked her way back through the field.

When the race's decisive move was made, just after the halfway mark, McKiernan went with it. In the 1,000, however, when the Ethiopians turned the screw, McKiernan feel away but always looked like qualifying. And she sprinted the last 200 metres in a manner which suggested that she had not been too distressed by the conditions.

"I took a lot water during the race and that helped," she said. "It wasn't quite as had as I had feared and I was also encouraged by how quickly I recovered after the race."

"It's probably going to be even tougher in the final, but that's another day's work. I've got through the first test, now I'll begin to start focusing on the final."

Nick Sweeney, who is due to open his challenge for the discus championship this morning, caused some concern yesterday when he arrived in the Olympic village complaining of a knee injury.

His knee was later treated by the medical team and the hope is that it will not impair him unduly when he reports to the circle this morning.