Irish round-up: It's been a hot, hot day in Athens - the hottest of the month - and even with the darkness the dense heat lingers in the Olympic Stadium. Down in the mixed zone athletes pass by, hosed down in sweat. James Nolan walks through. He's hot and he's satisfied and he's also furious.
A few minutes earlier in his Olympic 1,500 metres semi-final he'd finished 10th of the 13. No chance of making the final. Two potential medallists came in first and second, Adil Kaouch and Bernard Lagat. The winning time 3:35.69. Nolan clocked 3:42.61.
"Being realistic," he said, "I know I was a little bit out of my depth. I mean top 20 in the world is about where I'm at. Maybe even above where I'm at. So I was just delighted to get in there."
At 27 Nolan is at his peak. Chances are he'll never make an Olympic final. But without any prompting he then starts into a broadside against those who have questioned his commitment, his right to be here.
"And yeah, the word filtered back to me about Jerry Kiernan in the RTÉ studio, and it really hurt me. That he was questioning my training techniques, my commitment to training. And this was coming from a marathon-runner-stroke-cross-county-slogger. A totally different discipline to track and field. I didn't see any judo people commenting on Andy Lee's boxing match last night.
"He doesn't know the meaning of the word speed - so for him to question my commitment, and somebody who has trained 700 times this year, twice a day and with all the physio I can get to help clear the injury up.
"And he also questioned the injury in my hamstring, which he knows nothing about. He didn't contact any of the physiotherapists. He's saying I was using that as an excuse . . . who's he to question me?"
With that Nolan ran off for the changing area, followed by the winner of the second semi-final, Hicham El Guerrouj. These are the finest milers in the world and Nolan is among them. One medal hope, Rashid Ramzi - who had beaten El Guerrouj this year - bowed out, a victim, it seems, of the sometimes unbearable Olympic pressure.
Sometimes these Olympic semi-finals tell us who is going to win gold. Most of the time they tell us who is ready to win. It looks as if El Guerrouj is ready to win 1,500-metre gold tomorrow night - the long-awaited redemption after his failures of Atlanta and Sydney now just one race away.
But it looks as if at least three others are also ready to win. Lagat, the leading Kenyan, ran faultlessly to qualifying from Nolan's semi-final in 3:35.84. The Spaniard Reyes Estevez has clearly hit his peak. The Ethiopian Mulugeta looks dangerous.
The other Irish interest in the Olympic Stadium last night was provided by Derval O'Rourke in the 100-metre hurdles. The 23-year-old ended up seventh in her heat, her time of 13.46 exactly half a second outside her Irish record. The fastest qualifier was Joanna Hayes of the US in 12.71.
"I know I can go a lot faster than that," said O'Rourke. "But just four weeks ago I was in hospital with a suspected appendicitis wondering if I'd even be here. So I've just been trying to pull myself together for the past three weeks. I'd lost some weight and lost some strength, but I had to come with my head up, and just race.
"It wasn't ideal, but these are the things that make you stronger. Next year I know I'll be a lot stronger than this."
Yet just like high jumper Adrian O'Dwyer, she leaves Athens only with the hopes of the future. O'Dwyer has vowed to take the rest of the year off to get his thoughts together after a no-height last Friday. It'll be a long, hard road to recovery.
But they're not alone. In every event there are those walking away disillusioned. The American Stacey Dragila was favoured to win a medal in the pole vault, but failed to reach tonight's final after bowing out with only 4.30 metres in her qualifying round. Her best is 4.83. "I just couldn't make it," she said, "and that pretty much sucks."
