Three and a half seconds from glory

3.46 SECONDS. About the time it takes to read this sentence.

That’s the margin which separated Eoin Rheinisch from an Olympic medal yesterday.

So what do you say to a man who has produced an heroic performance yet missed a chance to become the 21st competitor from Ireland to stand on an Olympic podium? Do you commiserate or congratulate? Do you leave him with his thoughts or tears?

We never got to make the decision.

Instead Rheinisch sauntered up to the mixed zone as if this was Oscar night and he was heading home without a statuette but felt obliged to face the microphones.

“At first it was a little disappointing because I was close to a medal. But I am so happy. I really am. I have been very fortunate to make it through the rounds in the fashion that I did and I am delighted to come from 10th (after the semi-finals) to fourth in an Olympic final.

“This whole Olympics has been a roller-coaster and just making it through the semis was a drama.”

Much of that drama was, he admitted, of his own making. On Monday night, he scolded himself for a poor run which left him taking the 15th and last qualifying spot for the semi-finals. He had little time to celebrate that achievement as American Scott Parsons launched an appeal against a penalty he incurred which, had it been successful, would have knocked the Irishman out of the Olympics.

Though the judges kicked out the appeal, it still meant an extra hour or two spent kicking his heels in Shunyi before returning to the sanctuary of the Athletes’ Village.

And yesterday when he again sneaked the last place on offer for the final there was another wait while Slovenian Peter Kauzer tried having a time penalty overturned.

No prizes for guessing who was the fall guy if that had come off. But it didn’t and the 28-year-old was in his first Olympic final.

He admitted the last two days had been stressful off the water.

“We had to wait for the protest from the American on Monday and that made the night a bit later. Then I was just scraping into the final again yesterday. There was a protest there as well but we were a bit more confident about that one as people will protest anyway if they think there is a chance.”

As Rheinisch was the slowest qualifier, he was the first to tackle the final course. Time and time again over the last two days he bemoaned his tactical approach. This time he got things just right, but for one unexpected glitch.

“I was not happy with the last upstream on the right hand side. I just lost some time as I came out at gate 17. As I came out a stopper wave formed a little bit heavier than expected. I went backwards and it affected my glide to the end of the run.

“I don’t know how much that cost me, maybe a second or a second and a half. Apart from that I was delighted with the run.”

And then he sat back, watched the big screen, and awaited his fate.

“People started to try to go too hard after me and because I was in the unique position of being 10th off I could get no worse so it was nice place to be leading after four or five runs but then as it got closer I was thinking maybe just maybe I could hold on.”

His time of 176.91 (combined from his semi-final and final run) had him leading at the halfway stage until Alexander Grimm and Favine Lefevre bombed down the course and nudged Rheinisch back into bronze.

But still he clung onto third and watched the last competitor, Benjamin Boukepti of Togo, shove him from Olympic podium to Olympic footnote by under four seconds.

So what goes through a sportsman’s mind in that situation?

“You don’t want to be wishing people bad but it’s an Olympics and people mess up,” he claimed.

“This is an absolutely amazing result for him, he has to be commended.”

It wasn’t the answer we were looking for. Minutes earlier Daniel Molmenti of Italy had almost snapped his paddle in half in a fit of rage after two penalties left him last.

So we tried again to discover if Rheinisch’s Incredible Hulk was about to emerge from behind his calm Dr Bruce Banner exterior.

There was no dice. “I am a pretty calm person, that is what has helped me deal with the ups and downs all the way through and get focused again between runs.

“Between the semi-final and the final I had only 30 or 40 minutes to prepare (due to the appeal). So you can’t be angry or jumping up and down too much. You have to prepare. I don’t want to beat myself up and I won’t. If someone had told me Monday evening I was going to come fourth I would have found it hard to believe from the situation I was in.”

But even for a man who trains three times a day, and has the support of acclaimed coach Han Bijnen and sports psychologist Brendan Hackett, the former World Cup gold medallist admitted to having employed a secret weapon yesterday.

“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.”