After much disappointment at the Bird's Nest Stadium today Paul Hession kept the Irish flag flying with a wonderful display to qualify for tomorrow's 200 metres semi-final after winning his second round heat in convincing style.
Hession's time of 20.32 seconds was just 0.02 seconds outside his Irish record. The Athenry sprinter kept his composure after a false start and will now take on the world's best in tomorrow's semi-final (2.25pm Irish time) in the hope of booking a place in the final where Jamaica's Usain Bolt is the overwhelming favourite.
David Gillick (400m) and Eileen O'Keefe (hammer) both failed to make progress from their respective events.
Denis Lynch booked his place in Thursday's final of the Individual Jumping event at the equestrian centre in Hong Kong despite picking up six faults in today's third qualifying round.
Lynch, on board Lantinus, only picked up one time fault in each of his opening two rounds, which was good enough to secure the Irish rider's place in Thursday's final.
Today's round had more errors as he faulted at the water jump but remains on course for a medal at Sha Tin.
Light winds last week and high winds over the weekend have caused major headaches for the sailing officials at Quingdao with a number of cancellations and postponements.
Ciara Peelo wrapped up her campaign today by finishing 10th in race nine of the Laser Redial. Peelo also finished 25th and 18th in today's earlier races to finish 20th overall and miss out on qualification for tomorrow's final medal race for the top 10 boats.
Stephen Milne and Peter O'Leary are scheduled to have their eighth and ninth races of the Star campaign tomorrow but, as ever, this remains subject to change as the organisers chop and change the programme due to the adverse conditions on the Yellow Sea.
The excitement, meanwhile, continues to build for the first two of three Irish boxers involved in Tuesday's quarter-finals.
Belfast Light Flyweight Paddy Barnes is first up at the Workers' Gymnasium when he faces Poland's Lukasz Maszczyk. And team captain Kenny Egan takes to the ring shortly afterwards with Brazil's Washington Silva standing between him and a place on the podium.
Irish in action - Tuesday and Wednesday
Tuesday, August 19th
06.00 - Sailing
Star Keelboat Races 8 and 9, Stephen Milne and Peter O'Leary
12.00 - Boxing
Light Flyweight quarter-final, Paddy Barnes (Ire) vs Lukasz Maszczyk (Pol)
14.16 - Boxing
Light Heavyweight quarter-final, Kenny Egan (Ire) vs Washington Silva (Bra)
14.25 - Athletics
200m semi-finals, Paul Hession
Wednesday, August 20th
07.00 - Sailing
Star Keelboat Race 10, Stephen Milne and Peter O'Leary
12.00 - Athletics
800m Heats, Thomas Chamney
13.15 - Athletics
5,000m Heats, Alistair Cragg
15.20 - Athletics
200m Final, Paul Hession (if he qualifies)
13.01 - Boxing
Middleweight quarter-final, Darren Sutherland (Ire) v Alfonso Blanco Parra (Ven)