Paul Pollock left disappointed by showing

It wasn’t what he wanted, but that says more about his mentality than his performance. Paul Pollock finished a respectable 32nd in the Olympic marathon yesterday, reaching the finish in Rio’s Sambodromo in 2:16:24.

“I was hoping for top-20,” he said. “I think that was realistic so I’m coming away a bit disappointed.”

When the gun fired at 9.30am yesterday, Pollock started in conservative fashion, passing 10km in 124th of 155 competitors.

It was a strategy that worked to great effect for him three years ago at the World Championships, and Pollock hoped that being in the position of hunter would once again pay off.

He reached halfway in 1:08:09, just inside the top 100, and then sliced his way through the field over the latter half, running his final mile just as strong as his first.

If anything, he wondered after whether he had been too conservative.

“I came through nicely in the second half but I just left myself too much to do,” he said.

“I was a minute down on where I wanted to be at halfway, but I couldn’t push any harder in that first half. The legs were working as hard as they could.

“I don’t think anyone passed me in the second half of the race, but I’d gone quite slow for the first 16 miles and at that stage, I took a chance and pushed on. It only started to bite in the last two miles.”

Having come home almost eight minutes behind gold medallist Eliud Kipchoge, who won in 2:08:44, Pollock was not getting carried away with his performance.

“There are positives to take from it,” he said. “I’m coming away fit, healthy, and hopefully now I can target a fast marathon in the spring.”

For teammates Kevin Seaward and Mick Clohisey, however, it was harder to look on the bright side as they reflected on their runs.

Having both struggled with illness on the build-up, Seaward came home 64th in 2:20:06, while Clohisey was 103rd in 2:26:34.

“It was rough,” said Seaward. “The last couple of days I picked up some sort of bug, and after three or four kilometres, I was in a bad place. My preparation had been fantastic so I expected a little more.”

Seaward noted he had flu-like symptoms in the days before, but admitted the thought of not competing never crossed his mind.

“If it was a city marathon I wouldn’t have made the finish line, but this is the Olympics,” he said. “I was in a bad place but you’ve got an Irish shirt on; you have to do everything you can to get to the finish.”

Clohisey, meanwhile, wasn’t mincing his words after when asked about his performance. “It was brutal,” he said.

“I wasn’t right and didn’t have it at all. The only reason I stuck it out was because my family came over, otherwise I’d have jacked it in.”