No one needed to be told how much effort she’d poured into those four-odd minutes of racing, not when the cameras kept rolling as the urge to vomit became overwhelming soon after.

“I left everything out there, I left my whole stomach on the stairs on the way up,” she said. “I gave it 110 percent in the Irish vest which I always aim to do so I’ll hold my head high.”

Fourth place is a funny thing – for some it’s a triumph, for others an epic fail, but no one can embrace its presence without hearing the troubling sound of what-if ringing in their ear.

“You think: just let me at that last 100 metres again,” said Mageean. “I tried my hardest out there, and it was hands-on-my-knees in the end. Fourth is the worst place to come, like being beaten by a point in the GAA.”

With race favourite Laura Muir of Britain making a decisive move with 1000m to run, Mageean did the sensible thing, hanging in the pack and distributing her energy with the miserly attitude needed to come through and snatch a minor medal late on.

Muir’s teammate Laura Weightman was the only one to give chase, with Mageean tagging Poland’s Sofia Ennaoui back in the pack, a strategy that worked to perfection on the final lap as the Pole towed her back to Weightman, who all of a sudden looked bankrupt on the final turn.

“When I saw her faltering I thought I have this, keep tall, but I sadly didn’t find another gear,” she said.

Muir claimed gold in 4:02.32, with Ennaoui powering through to silver in 4:03.08 and Weightman taking bronze in 4:03.75.

Mageean hit the line fourth in 4:04.63, in the midst of the pain that brought a promise.

“I’m telling you, I’m looking forward to the years ahead in the Irish vest.

“I’m only going to go from strength to strength. I just wanted to walk off that track knowing that I gave everything out there. I can’t have any regrets. I gave it my all.”

The Irish men’s team produced a strong performance in the marathon to finish sixth overall, led home by Kevin Seaward, who clocked 2:16:58 to finish 15th. That was seven minutes behind race winner Koen Naert of Belgium, who set a championship record of 2:09:51.

“It was hot in the second half and I was trying to respect the weather,” said Seaward, who passed halfway in 39th. Mick Clohisey was next in, 18th in 2:18:00, while Seán Hehir bounced back from a rough experience at last year’s World Championships in London by finishing 25th in 2:18:58.

“My father said to me last night you can’t have another London and it weighed heavy on my mind since last year,” said Hehir.

“I had to banish those demons and I’m so proud of this team.”

The Irish trio of Lizzie Lee, Breege Connolly and Gladys Ganiel O’Neill were all outside 2:40 in the women’s marathon but managed an eighth-place finish overall. Lee led them home in 29th with 2:40:12, with fellow Olympian Connolly 31st in 2:41:53 and Ganiel O’Neill 33rd in 2:42:42.

“Said Lee: “I was hoping for a bit better but if you told me at mile 22 that I was going to finish, I’d have bitten your arm off.”

The Irish women’s 4x100m team of Joan Healy, Phil Healy, Ciara Neville and Gina Akpe-Moses finished fourth in their heat in an Irish record of 44.80, but missed out on the final by just 0.06.

“We’ve got a great future ahead of us, we’ve got many, many years to build, to prepare and to get things right,” said Akpe-Moses.