Team Ireland follow Dr Rod McLoughlin's orders

Team Ireland’s chief medical officer Dr Rod McLoughlin will be on high alert over the coming weeks in Rio, writes Brendan O’Brien.

The ExCel. Cian O’Connor’s bronze. Rob Heffernan’s punishing fourth in the 50km walk that would ultimately earn Ireland another bronze with the confirmation four months ago that Sergey Kiryapkin’s gold had been stripped for doping offences.

Yep, London was the Olympics that just kept on giving but the successes of a handful of athletes tend to mask over the stories of those whose Olympic dreams curdled under the spotlight, and not always as a result of something as explicable as poor performances.