It's been a hard day's night in Munich, and two Irish athletes had tough work finding answers.
Geraldine Hendricken and Peter Coghlan were both thinking about European Championship finals and yet both were left to think about what went wrong.
For Hendricken, the discovery of new and truly capable form this season had brought her into the Olympic Stadium yesterday morning as a clear contender for a place in the 1,500 metres final. Instead, she walked off the track after maybe her worst race since the previous best days of her career 12 years ago.
Running in the second of three heats, and with only the top three sure to progress, Hendricken was always in need of the sort of performance that saw her drop her personal best by some 13 seconds this season to four minutes, 3.18 seconds. But when the race was done and her effort all out, she had run 4:18.13, and was back in eighth place.
It was a race that could have suited the Carlow athlete, but instead seemed to go totally against her. The unknown Sureyya Ayhan of Turkey took the lead like a pacemaker on the Grand Prix circuit, but didn't slow down, and once Hendricken tried to go with her the troubles began. After 500 metres, she had dropped down the field and never recovered.
"Well you know I'm more disappointed than anyone," she said afterwards. "I just felt terrible out there and this was definitely not the sort of championships I was thinking of.
"I have no answers right now, but I was sucking diesel for too much of that race.
"Maybe I went out a little fast and got into oxygen debt because I definitely slowed down drastically. And it was my worst race of the year. I tried my best to pull back to them over the last 300 metres, but there was just nothing there."
With the Turkish athlete still miles out in front, and the chasing group of six athletes another 10 yards up on Hendricken, the chance of closing the gap on the last lap was already gone.
"Well, I wasn't nervous or anything like that," she added, "and it wasn't like I chucked it. I know people will be critical of this, but it was excruciating out there over the last lap because I was running so hard and it was so painful and I was getting nowhere."
Yet, Hendricken wasn't the only one having problems with qualification. While Romania's title favourite Gabriela Szabo breezed through her heat in 4:05.14 - just an inch away from Russia's Tatyana Tomashova - all three British hopes failed to progress to tomorrow's final.
Kelly Holmes was hoping to add 1,500 metre silverware to her bronze over 800 metres, but she was eliminated in fourth place of heat one, clocking 4:08.11.
Maria Lynch provided the other Irish interest and ran closer to her best when taking eighth in heat three, clocking 4:14.41. Though she never got herself in true contact with the leaders, the 23-year-old will have learned much from the experience.
Coghlan, meanwhile, was out a short while later for the heats of the 110-metres hurdles. For three years, the Irish record-holder has been searching for the form that saw him run 13.30 seconds and fall just short of a world championship final.
But it was another step back rather than forward. Finishing fifth in 13.96 was so far below his expectations that Coghlan walked straight off the track, knowing his chances were burnt.
He ended up 26th of the 32 entries. "I hate making excuses, but I'm just not 100 per cent," said the 27-year-old Dubliner.
"Physically, I'm just not at my best. I still came here with a lot of hope, but that wasn't even close to what I was looking for."
Yet, Coghlan's problems can't be ignored. He suffered a hamstring injury at the European Cup last June, and, just when he thought that was done with, he had problems with his thigh muscle. And then there were problems with his groin.
Suddenly, all the sacrifices of the last two years appear to have been in vain. "Well a lot of people are making sacrifices in the sport. It's frustrating for me because I just can't seem to get myself right."
