Mark English's mission to reach the final of the men's 800m final at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest fell short on Thursday night, with the Finn Valley man taking seventh in a season's best time.
English ran a huge race in his heat on Tuesday to nab fourth place in 1:45:71.
On Thursday he started in lane 3, with only the top two earning automatic qualification.
In a blistering semi, the 30-year-old faded in the last 100 metres, crossing the line in a time of 1.45.14.
The Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonyi won it in 1.43.83.
"I gave everything I could," said English. "It's a good time and a season’s best. My expectations were to make a semi-final given my preparations and I’ve achieved that so when I reflect on this year, I think I’ll be happy.
"These guys are the world’s best for a reason. That’s the toughest world semi I’ve ever experienced so the competition was tough, but I’m looking forward to next year. Ideally, I’d have had a few races leading into these championships but given the preparation I’ve had, I’m happy with how I performed."
Brendan Boyce came home in 24th place in the men's 35-kilometre walk, with victory going to Alvaro Martin of Spain.
In warm, early-morning conditions in the Hungarian capital, Boyce, competing in his sixth consecutive Worlds, clocked a season's best time of two hours 37 minutes and 26 seconds.
The Finn Valley AC athlete has been competing over the 35km distance following the abolition of the 50k competition after the Tokyo Olympics.
Boyce said: "It was a very, very difficult race. I got into a nice groove in the first 10 or 12 kilometres. I was really happy with who I was walking with like Matteo Giupponi, he was a European medallist last year. I felt it was a good place to because he's a smart racer.
"That group made a little move, I got detached and my rhythm was completely shot. From 15km to 25km it was just a mental game to try to stay in a rhythm and keep going. I knew it would get hotter and people would suffer and I just had to stay in the contention.
"So 24th I'm actually happy because I was back in the 30s at one point. I'll take 24th."
Martin's victory added to the gold medal he won in the 20km event last weekend.
After early leader Aurelien Quinion of France had dropped off the pace and was then disqualified, Martin shared the lead with Ecuador's Brian Pintado and Japan's Masatora Kawano entering the final 4km.
Martin made the break with less than 2km remaining and crossed the line in two hours, 24 minutes and 30 seconds, four seconds before Pintado.
Kawano posted a season's best of 2:25:12 to finish third, while defending champion Massimo Stano of Italy was seventh with 2:25:59.
"That's the goal next year, to come out here and compete against these guys" - Brian Fay speaks to @DavidGillick after he failed to qualify for the men's 5000m final at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest #RTEsport pic.twitter.com/4oBdwZ1fwG
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 24, 2023
Brian Fay failed to make the men's 5000m final, coming home in 16th place in a time of 13:42:16.
"It was a rough run, but you take it and you move on," Fay said afterwards.
"It was a disappointing run, I was kind of hoping for a little bit more. I left everything out there... at the end of the day I was 16th in the field, you just have to accept that and move on.
"I just need to learn to be a little bit more competitive in these world-class fields."
Additional reporting: Reuters
