ATHLETICS:IN THE deep foundations of the Bird's Nest the camera crews and reporters surrounded Usain Bolt as if he'd just won another gold medal.

Paul Hession walked past and for a second caught the eyes of the big Jamaican. Not quite one of the big boys, thought Hession. Not yet anyway.

So how should we put it this time? He failed to make the final? He bowed out in the semi-final?

Either way Paul Hession won't be among the eight best 200-metre runners in the world - but if missing out by one place, one metre, one stride felt like any sort of failure he certainly did not show it.

Praise, as Churchill once said, is a bit like champagne: in victory we deserve it, in defeat we need it.

Hession may well have provided the champagne moment of Irish athletics at these Olympics, because in progressing so far, in the manner he did, he proved almost as praiseworthy as if he had gone all the way.

In the end, he was 13-hundredths of a second short of a place in today's final. His 20.38 and fifth place in his semi-final was the ultimate sporting example of so near and yet so far. One place, one metre, one stride.

"No, I couldn't do any more," said Hession, with the sort of measured evaluation you'd expect from a medical student.

"Maybe I'll look back on this with a little regret. How close can you be? One place? But what can you do? I tried hard, but I haven't made it. A metre off the final, against the best Americans and Jamaicans. So I can't be too disappointed. I didn't mess up.

"I've clearly improved this season, come on another level. Maybe these Olympics came a year too early, but it's been a good championship for me. I knew 20.25 would probably make it, and it did, from both semi-finals.

"I just didn't have that extra gear, but considering my problems in the past with rounds, I've still done really well.

"I always felt it would be a six-horse race, between the four that qualified and me and Chris Williams. I beat Williams, but not the other four."

After winning his quarter-final on Monday, Hession said he expected the big boys to move up a gear, and they did. Churandy Martina of the Dutch Antilles, fourth in the 100-metre final last Saturday, won in 20.11 - a national record; Brian Dzingai of Zimbabwe was second in 20.17; the American Walter Dix, who took 100-metre silver, was third in 20.19; and Britain's Christian Malcolm was fourth, taking the last qualifying place, in 20.25.

Truth is, Hession would have needed to improve his Irish record of 20.30 to make it, but only because this was such a high quality event. Four years ago in Athens, 20.56 made the final.

He may not have run the perfect bend, but there wasn't much more Hession could have done.

"This was a class up, again, compared to the quarter-final. I think for most of the race I was just a touch down. A tiny, tiny fraction. I was fifth off the bend - when I hoped to be fourth - then tightened up. I still think I got my peaking right, but I'm just not as strong as these guys. Not yet. And this is the Olympics. The best sprinters in the world."

At 25, Hession has clearly room and time to improve. Since he moved to Scotland two years ago to train under Stuart Hogg, his progress has been nothing if not steady, and should he maintain that, the European championships in two years' time should mark his peak. He was still the second-best European in Beijing.

"The event has moved on," he said. "And hopefully I can move on as well and at the World Championships next summer make the final. But I was absolutely loving it out there, had a great time. I said I'd enjoy every minute of it, because it doesn't come around every often. And even after the race, I looked up at the crowd, took it all in. There are 91,000 people in there, but you don't get a chance to see them until you finish."

If there was some lingering disappointment it was that Hession won't get to line up alongside Bolt in the final. Yet again, the 21-year-old looked a class apart when winning his semi-final in 20.09. Hession will undoubtedly meet him again, and he knows the value in that.

"Athletics is such a huge sport, and I'm such a huge fan and want to see it getting bigger and better in Ireland. One way to do that is perform on the big stage and hopes that carries on through to the grassroots."

Hession's exit means today's Irish interest on the track rests with Alistair Cragg and Thomas Chamney. Cragg drew a reasonably good 5,000-metre heat (1.15pm Irish time), but Chamney has the proverbial mountain to climb in his 800-metre heat (noon); the defending champion, Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia, is among his opponents.