The Irish heavyweight four has missed out on a rowing final spot after finishing last in their semi-final this morning.
The quartet was up against the best in the world and was left with a mountain to climb after a slow start in the six-boat race.
Despite their inexperience, Cormac Folan, Seán Casey, Jonno Devlin and Seán O'Neill, fought back and came within half a length of last year's world champions New Zealand.
Gold medal favourites Great Britain, however, finished almost four seconds ahead of the Irish, who now look to tomorrow's 'B' final.
Australia and France joined Britain in the final after a second and third respectively, while Slovenia, Germany and the Czech Republic emerged from a much slower second semi-final.
The USA and New Zealand will contest the best of the rest with Ireland, the Netherlands, Belarus and Italy.
The Irish will be encouraged by the times posted by the losing trio in the second semi-final.
The Netherlands were fourth in that race and clocked a time of 6:02.46 minutes, nearly four seconds behind the time (5:58.14) set by Ireland.
In fact, had Ireland competed in the second race their time would have been good enough to finish third ahead of Germany.