Sarah Lavin gave it her all, but her time of 12.69 seconds and a sixth-place finish was not enough to bank a spot in the Olympics 100m hurdles final.
In top form over the past year, the Limerick woman was up against it to land a spo in the decider against some stellar opposition.
Alaysha Johnson of the USA won in a time 12.34 seconds with only two automatic qualifying spots on offer for the top two.
Lavin needed to finish inside the top four to even be considered as one of the fastest non-qualifiers but she just missed out on that opportunity by two hundredths of a second.
Bearing in mind that her national record is 12.62, she would have needed to break that to have a chance of landing a spot in the final.
An emotional but optimistic Lavin put on a brave face after her performance, with the sprinter still proud of what she had achieved.
"I have to be immensely proud," she told RTÉ. "At hurdle eight I was in a really good position and that’s hurdles you have to be precise.
"It was going to be best race I was going to put out today up until the eighth hurdle… Today I’m not good enough."
"I have to be immensely proud... just today I'm not good enough " Sarah Lavin felt the eighth hurdle was costly in her 110m semi-final
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Lavin was one of Team Ireland’s flagbearers at the opening ceremony – alongside Shane Lowry – and it has been an amazing experience for the hurdler.
"‘The people that are here for me," she continued. "And people mean so much to me."
"It’s so beautiful and I can’t thank people enough because to come into a stadium like this and have such a loud roar behind you is incredible."
*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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