Olympics update: There was heartbreak for Ireland's Eoin Rheinisch who gave it his all but narrowly missed out on a medal by finishing fourth in the men's slalom K1 kayak final on the white water at Shunyi Olympic Park this morning.
Never mind a white water ride, Rheinisch gave his supporters a white knuckle ride all the way through this competition before ultimately giving his best performance in the final.
The 28-year-old was first of the 10 finalists into the water after scraping through to set a very respectable aggregate time of 176.91 seconds after his semi-final time of 88.85 was added to the final split of 88.06.
Both were clean runs and that helped move Rheinisch, ranked 56th in the world, move up the final standings from 10th to fourth.
However, it was always going to be a tough ask for the Salmon Leap club man from Celbridge to paddle all the way into a medal position, but it was one of the better, more aggressive, runs of the final.
In the end Germany's Alexander Grimm took gold medal in a time of 171.70 with France's Fabien Lefevre taking silver and Togo's Benjamin Boukpeti the bronze.
"It's heartbreaking that I came so close to a medal," said Rheinisch after the final. "One error is what cost me a medal, but I was really fortunate to come this far."
"I can't complain, I've been riding my luck to get just through each heat to the final."
In the earlier semi-final Rheinisch enjoyed a slice of luck for the second day running when he, once again, was first of the 15 qualifiers into the water. The Dubliner made a couple of early errors then had an agonising wait before securing 10th spot and a place in the final.
Slovenia's Peter Kauzer, who was fastest in yesterday's heats, was the last semi-final competitor into the water and strong favourite to knock Rheinisch out. However, with two penalties in an erratic run the Slovenian failed to beat the Irishman's time. Kauzer later appealed the result but lost out.
From the outset of this event Rheinisch, competing in his second Olympics, had a tough ride all the way to the final. In his first heat he finished 20th of 21 competitors before improving to 15th after the second run to secure the semi-final berth when American Scott Parsons made a catastrophic error.
In sailing Ciara Peelo lies 25th overall in the women's single handed laser radial class after finishing 23rd in race one and 17th in race two at the Quigdao Olympic Sailing Centre.
Gerald Owens and Phil Lawton are 13th overall after finishing 17th in race three and 15th in race four of the men's double-handed 470 class. Australia's Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page lead this competitive fleet of 29 nations.
Tomorrow will see Tim Goodbody (21st overall) resume his competition in the men's heavyweight finn class where England's Ben Ainslie is favourite and currently holds the lead after six races.
The sailing events consist of a ten race opening series followed by a final medal race for the top ten boats. Boats can begin to discard their worst results after six races.