Hession: I've learned a whole lot
Although he failed in his bid to become the first Irishman to qualify for an Olympic sprint final since Bob Tisdall in 1932, Paul Hession was still happy with his lot as he stood trackside in the Bird's Nest Stadium.
The Athenry flyer just missed out on a place in the final, finishing fifth (20.38 seconds) in a pacy semi-final behind the four automatic qualifiers.
His prediction that he would have to beat his Irish record of 20.30 to stand any chance of progressing proved accurate.
Britain's Christian Malcolm and Kim Collins of St Kitts and Nevis, who both timed 20.25, were the slowest of the eight qualifiers.
Hession is clearly determined to put his Beijing experience to good use in the years ahead and come back a stronger athlete.
"I didn't qualify but I don't need to be despondent. I set out to enjoy this Olympic experience and I have learned a whole lot," he admitted.
"This was a big step up for me, a whole new experience to learn from."
Although he was in contention off the bend, Hession was just trailing Malcolm and crucially could not make up ground on the Cardiff man.
"I felt that it would come down to a battle for the fourth qualifying place between Christian Malcolm, Christopher Williams (from Jamaica) and myself.
"As it happened, Christian Malcolm ran really well and got fourth, with myself fifth and Williams sixth.
"As I see it at the moment, I'm really just a metre short of fully matching it with the very top athletes in this event," he said.
Tenth overall at his first Olympics, the second fastest European and the quickest white 200m sprinter in the world. Quite an achievement for the 25-year-old NUI Galway medical student.
Hession can certainly hold his head high as his heroic runs in Beijing captured the imagination of the Irish sporting public and might also have inspired the next generation of sprinting talent.
"I'm delighted to hear the news...that a lot of people were watching and supporting me from back home. I'm a big fan of track and field and I believe that Irish athletics needs all the help and media exposure that it can get."
Hession expects to run a couple of more races on the European circuit before finishing up his season.
2009 will be another big year for him with the World Championships taking place in Berlin in twelve months' time.
"I will probably run an indoor season and next year I also plan to run more 100 metre events too," he added, with the promise of more to come.
