World Championships/Irish in action: It's been a bit of a struggle, her heavy breathing and slow movements revealing the pain involved, but at least Karen Shinkins made it through the mixed zone. Of the six Irish athletes in action on the opening weekend of the World Championships three didn't even make it that far - resigned instead to the disappointment of not finishing.

Out on the track Shinkins looked far more composed. By finishing third in heat two of the 400 metres she got the guarantee of a place in this evening's semi-finals, and so lifted some of the early depression settling in on the Irish team.

That then led her through the unusually demanding mixed zone, which first zigzags up the stand past the television crews, back down under the stadium, and finally through a long corridor of barriers where the athletes are grilled by the press.

"Phew, that was tough," she said, referring to the post-race demands. "But I'm very happy with the way I ran. A few of those girls had beaten me this year. So I knew it was going to be close. So it's a relief to get the third automatic spot."

Ideally drawn in lane four, Shinkins always looked safe for third. The American Dee Dee Trotter, who'd been drawn inside her, actually flew past down the back stretch, and that forced Shinkins to lift her pace. She came into the straight in second, and while Britain's Christine Ohuruogo did ease past in lane one, there was no further danger.

Trotter took the win in 51.44 seconds, Shinkins clocking 51.84.

"I felt so smooth for the first 100 metres," she added, "and didn't want to push too hard. I just wanted to do myself justice. I knew I was ready to run here. My form was a bit scratchy going into some other championships, but I was a lot more confident here."

Shinkins made the semi-finals of these championships in 2001, the year before she took bronze at the European Indoors. Things haven't worked out since then but at the age of 28 she's clearly rediscovering her old form. She puts much of that down to a change in coach; she now trains in Atlanta under former Olympic relay champion Pauline Davis.

Her Irish record of 51.07 goes back six years now, but is definitely the kind of time she'll need to run to make the final. There'll be three semi-finals, the top two in each and the two fastest losers progressing to Wednesday's decider. She was also drawn in lane eight against reigning World champion Ana Guevara of Mexico and Olympic champion Tonique Williams-Darling of the Bahamas. Yet the Kildare athlete believes there is more in the tank.

"I do, because I was holding back at the start, expecting to be fighting for a top three coming into the home stretch. So I just wanted to contain what I felt I could do, which is a nice feeling."

No such nice feelings for the other five Irish athletes breathing the Helsinki air over the past two days. Those feelings ranged from "badly defeated" (Róisín McGettigan's words after her elimination from the steeplechase) to "totally disgusted" (Robert Heffernan's words after disqualification in the 20km walk).

It was hard to know what James Nolan really felt like after finishing second last in his 1,500-metre heat, and Marie Davenport was simply inconsolable after dropping out of the 10,000 metres with seven laps to go.

That gloomy mood had the last say yesterday afternoon when Olive Loughnane was disqualified in the 20km walk. No one on this Irish team came here loaded with national expectations, but not reaching personal expectations is sometimes harder to accept.

Loughnane's race ended shortly before the 11km mark when she picked up the dreaded third and fatal warning - and was thus disqualified for the first time at a major championship. At that stage she'd worked herself up to 21st place, and was confident of climbing even higher.

"I knew I'd been cautioned twice for lifting," she explained. "I thought I would survive that, but then I was done for a knee warning (not fully straightening the leg). I was just beginning to come through, and felt very comfortable. But they are the rules . . . you just have to accept them."

As Loughnane was recounting her disappointment, Russia's Olimpiada Ivanova was celebrating her world record (85 minutes, 41 seconds) and gold medal (worth €160,000 in total). Ivanova did walk 84.50 four years ago but that was never ratified because there was no drug testing - and she was just coming off a two-year ban for steroid abuse.

Heffernan also found a DQ next to his name when he got back to the stadium on Saturday evening. He'd been warned at 8km, 14km and 16km - at which stage he'd moved into 11th place:

"I'd done everything right coming here," he said, "and done so much work on my technique. Video work, everything. I'm totally disgusted, and don't know what else to say.

"But it was no fluke that I was in that position. I was definitely on for a top-12 finish."

McGettigan took ninth in her steeplechase heat in 9:56.31 - about 10 seconds outside her best - while Davenport gave recurring allergy problems as her reason for dropping out of the 10,000m.

So to Nolan, who took out his 1,500-metre heat like it was a time trial (running his first lap in 56.89 seconds) with the intention of progressing as a fastest loser.

That tactic backfired when no one else helped out, and Nolan fell from fourth to 11th over the last 200 metres - clocking 3:42.53.

"I'm just annoyed no one helped," he explained with an air of almost sort calm sense of acceptance.

"All we had to run was around 3:38 or 3:39, and if we all chipped in and did our bit then nearly everybody would have gone through. But maybe I was the only one in the race with a pair of balls."

Clearly there are two ways of viewing Nolan's tactics - he either gave himself a chance, or just blew it.

Either way, he was nowhere near qualifying - and that's what the heats of championship running are all about.