TEAM IRELAND swimmer Fiona Doyle could not fight back the tears after being eliminated from the 100 metre breast stroke following four years of hard work to get to the Olympics.
The Limerick native finished eighth in Sunday's fifth heat in what she considered her strongest event, but that put her 20th overall and outside the top 16, therefore denying her a semi-final spot on.
She was just 0.26 seconds shy of that elusive top 16 and started well having touched in at third in after the opening 50m, but she couldn’t stick with the pace in the second-half of the race.
"Tomorrow's a new day. It's been fantastic,” Doyle told RTE, trying to stay positive but struggling to hide her emotions.
"I've loved every minute of it. I felt absolutely fantastic in the warm-up, I felt better than I've ever felt before in my whole life, so to not progress, I'm devastated."
Watch the gut-wrenching moment Doyle comes to terms with defeat below:
Fiona Doyle tells @OFlynnPaul that she is "devastated" after her disappointing 100m breaststroke heat #rterio2016 https://t.co/kpUZyo4EOd
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 7, 2016
