SWIMMING: Although the race is 100 metres long, Emma Robinson's Olympics foundered some way at the halfway point. Heat six of the women's breaststroke became a private affair. As she slipped out of the reckoning in lane one, the flag wavers in the stands were screaming for the ginger-haired Australian Leisel Jones, the fastest ever in this discipline.

Somewhere in the crowd were Emma's parents and her fiance, Johnny Bell, and they kept their eyes on lane one as Robinson slipped down the reckoning. The swimmers for heat seven were already limbering in the shade under the grey metal stands, dancing impatiently.

Robinson's aspirations of qualifying for the Olympic final were over well before she touched the wall to finish in a time of 1:11.48, nothing close to her personal best. She lingered around the deck for a minute or two, another Olympian discovering how swiftly and unceremoniously the dream snaps shut.

"Bad race, bad race," she shrugged as she leaned against a railing along the parade where the athletes, winners and losers, walk off.

Although damp-eyed and clearly hurting, she managed to smile as she described how she had been just minutes before in the call room, when lane one shimmered with possibility for her.

In the bright sunlight, the pool looks friendly and exotic but the atmosphere is gladiatorial and lonely. Walking out onto the deck, the Irish girl looked strained.

"I tried so hard to stay relaxed but I was very nervous. It was hot in the call room, really hot, but I had an ice vest on, I was well prepared. I was listening to Brown Eyed Girl before we came out, just trying to keep things normal. I tried to stay relaxed but I felt my arms in the second 50 and I just had no . . . they were shaking. And I have never felt that before. It just wasn't there."

It was Robinson's misfortune to be drawn in the toughest of the heats. Jones is yet another of Australia's phenomenal water babies. The daughter of a pool cleaner in the town of Katherine, she began swimming at two and announced herself at the Olympic trials four years ago by making the national team at the age of 14.

At Sydney, she became the youngest Australian ever to win a swimming medal, taking silver in this event and in the medley relay. Last summer in Spain, she broke the record in this event with a time of 1:06.37. Yesterday morning, four lanes and several light years separated her from the Irish girl. With Jones as pacesetter, Robinson always knew the times would be demanding.

"I suppose she is too far ahead of me to be an advantage. It was a tough heat to be in; I always knew that. If I had been in heat three, I would have been thinking, ooooh, all right. But there was not much I could do about that."

Had Robinson been drawn in that third heat, she would have swum among a group whose pace would have left her in with a fighting chance of making the top 16 qualifiers for last night's semi-finals.

Of the 48 swimmers that entered this event, she finished in 24th place, exactly four and a half seconds behind the American Brooke Hanson, who finished on 1:07.35.

Gaining a place on the starting blocks tonight, lining up alongside the glittering names of her sport, was the ambition the Ballymoney swimmer set coming to Athens.

"Tomorrow is my birthday. God, I would have loved to have been in that final," she said wistfully.

She will be 26. Jones is still only 19 years of age and highly likely to leave these games with more than one gold medal. Robinson will depart with bittersweet memories.

"My parents and Johnny are around until Monday so we will just go out now and try and have a good time, see the sights," she said bravely.

But although she will wander through the ruins, her thoughts are likely to remain in the water for a while to come. The swimmer's life is one of brief but total immersion.

For four years Robinson worked towards yesterday morning's race, training at college in Bath and at home. After all the hype and preparation, it came down to 76 seconds of battling against herself in the water.

"If it isn't there, it isn't there," she said, almost apologetically.

Nearby, Tara Kirk, the American who finished second in the heat and is a strong medal contender, was laughing breezily to a gallery of US reporters.

"Man, that water is hot," she said. "I just wish it was as warm back in my suite."