Mayo native Diver comes home 10th in marathon 

Fionnuala McCormack was 25th in 2:34:09 while Cork’s Aoife Cooke withdrew just before the midway point.

Australia’s Sinead Diver crosses the finish line

In they came, after 26.2 sweltering miles on the streets of Sapporo, their limbs aching and their bodies close to breaking. And in the end anyone watching the race through a green-tinted lens had reason to feel proud of what they achieved.

The first athlete home in an Irish vest was Fionnuala McCormack, 25th in 2:34:09, and the only way to look at her performance was as a success, it being the 36-year-old Wicklow woman’s first race back after childbirth. McCormack being McCormack, she’ll have wanted more, but that’s a signal of the drive that has underpinned the career of Ireland’s most-capped female athlete.