CANOEING:AFTER WE'D reattached our nerves and picked our hearts off the floor, we headed for the mixed-zone right next to the white-water rapids of Shunyi Olympic Park, half expecting to find Eoin Rheinisch still bundled over in his kayak, trying to come to terms with finishing fourth in the Olympics.

After riding the sort of luck that would have made even the Chinese number eight envious, Rheinisch had, in the very end, seen his luck run out: an Olympic medal first changed colour, then slipped from his hand just when it seemed certain he had pocketed it.

It's a moment that may well haunt him for the rest of his life, but for now Rheinisch could only stand proudly, calmly recounting what had been one of the most thrilling, heart-racing moments in Irish Olympic history, despite the ultimately sad and lonesome ending.

"Well, I am still calm," he started, "because I am a pretty calm person. I think that is what has helped me deal with the ups and downs of it all the way through, to get focused again between runs, especially between the semi-final and that last run."

Even if it is the most lonesome place in all of sport, Rheinisch was having no regrets about his fourth place. The 28-year-old from Kildare regretted not making the semi-finals in Athens four years ago, but made up for that on Monday when he benefited from several fortunate breaks in succession - including an American protest over the placing of their competitor - to make the 15-man final.

Then, in yesterday's first run, he once again rolled like a tumbling dice before landing on the lucky number 10 - as the last man to go through to the final run.

So, after posting a coolly impressive final run of 88.06 seconds - and a combined time of 176.91 - Rheinisch calmly waited as the remaining nine competitors came down the rapids. With only four remaining, he was still holding on to the gold medal, only for Germany's Alexander Grimm, France's Fabien Lefevre and, finally, France-based Benjamin Boukpeti to end up with quicker times.

"This whole Olympics has been a rollercoaster, ups and downs," he added. "Just making it through the semis and then having to wait for the protest from the American yesterday, just scraping into the final again after there was a protest there as well.

"When I finished my last run the only part that I wasn't happy with was the last up-stream on the right-hand side. I just lost some time as I came out, at gate 17, as I came out the stopper wave formed a little bit heavier, I just went a little bit backwards and it just affected my glide to the end of the run.

"I don't know how long, maybe a second, a second-and-a-half, but apart from that I was delighted with the run. And then, yeah, because it was an Olympic event, people started to try to go too hard after me. So to go from the run that I did in the first run - to cut it back, I was ecstatic. Then as people started to go down I was getting more and more happy. Then as it got closer I was thinking maybe, maybe . . ."

We were thinking that, thus explaining our initial disappointment: "At first it was a little bit disappointing," he admitted, "because I was close to a medal, but I am so happy, I really am. In the end, you don't want to be wishing people bad, but it's an Olympics, people mess up. But again, I could have ended up in exactly the same place, missing the semi by one place, so I am very fortunate. I was wearing the lucky number of the Chinese eight and I have shamrocks all over me and they certainly helped, there was somebody looking out for me.

"Winning is a great feeling, but this, under the circumstances and the pressure involved, this is my best result."

That it is, and one of the best Irish Olympic results of all time considering all he's endured to get this far in the sport. Without a white-water facility in Ireland, he spends over two-thirds of the year training overseas, with only the basic grant of €20,000. Yet, he wasn't so sure this could mark a turning point for the sport.

"I don't think this will make much of a difference to the amount of slalom canoeists unless we get a facility. Look at this facility, it is a huge white-water and this is where all of our races were on and we are training on flat water on the Liffey.

"If we don't get a facility the sport won't grow and we won't have the depth. They don't have to be on this grand scale. They can be built for €3 million, which is not a lot, and they can be made into a commercial business with rafting and tourism.

"Sponsorship is difficult too in Ireland. Because we don't have the facility, it is a minority sport.

"But look, I am not in it for the money. If I was in it for the money I would pick a different sport."

If he's in it for the sort of thrill generated out at Shunyi Park, then that's good enough for now.