Catherine Walsh became Ireland's first Paralympic triathlete with an eighth-place finish in the women's PT5 event in Rio.
The 42-year-old Dubliner, a former medallist in pentathlon and track cycling, made the switch to triathlon along with pilot Fran Meehan following the sport's addition to the Paralympic programme for 2016.
A winner of two ITU World Cup events this summer, the duo fell behind in the opening 250m swim leg, emerging from the water in 10th place, some five and a half minutes behind the leaders.
Walsh's cycling pedigree stood to her on the 20km ride as the Irish pair moved up to ninth, before picking up another place on the 5km run to the finish.
But they were unable to make up any time on front-runners, with the gold medal taken by Australia's Katie Kelly in a time of one hour, 12mins, 18 seconds, just over 10 minutes ahead of Walsh and Meehan's 1:22:25.
Catherine said afterwards: “The main thing really was the temperature, particularly when we were on the run, so between the bike and the run it was really catching up.
"The sea was a bit calmer than it had been the last few days when we were training, but the swim was always our weak link, so we were actually quite happy with that element of it.
"We’re just delighted to be the first women to be in the first ever IRC para-triathlon in the Games.”
