Thursday in Rio was all about two men from an Irish perspective - Thomas Barr and Usain Bolt.
- The Waterford man went agonisingly close to taking a medal in the 400m hurdles final, missing out on third place by 0.05 seconds.
Barr set another new national record in the process, and you must thing brighter days lie ahead for the Ferrybank flyer.
- In the other main event on the track, Usain Bolt once again held off all challengers to take his eight Olympic gold. He didn't set the world record he wanted but he was a comfortable winner of the 200m final.
- After a poor enough start, both Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow enjoyed much improved second rounds in Rio. Cavan's Maguire is inside the top 25, while Meadow is in a tie for 38th.
- Having missed out in 2012, Bryan Keane had a 40th place finish in an utterly grueling men's triathlon, which also saw a 1-2 for Britain's Brownlee brothers.
- On the water, Ireland's Matt McGovern and Ryan Seaton finished their Olympic campaign in 10th place overall after taking ninth in the 49er Medal Race
- A mixed day for Ireland's pentathletes. Arthur Lanigan O'Keeffe will go into Saturday's final in 25th place after the fencing ranking round, while Natalya Coyle is in 12th ahead of Friday's final.
- Back on the track, there was a rather bizzare sight as the US 4x100m relay team were given a lifeline after being impeded in their semi-final. The US re-ran the race, alone, and set the fastest time to advance to the final.
- In slightly more conventional athletics news, Dalilah Muhammad took gold in the women's 400m hurdles for the United States.
- Argentina, who overcame Ireland in their final pool game, are Olympic hockey champions following a 4-2 win over Belgium in the final.
- The OCI's Pat Hickey has been discharged from hospital in Rio and taken to a police station to complete a deposition.
We now enter the "People who have had a bad day" section...
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Izzat Artykov of Kyrgyzstan is the first athlete to hand over an Olympic medal after the man who took bronze in the 69kg weightlifting category tested positive for strychnine. Toxic.
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The fallout over controversial Olympic boxing judging continues after the International Boxing Association announced that their body's Executive Director has been 'reassigned'. Sinister.
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Brazilian police are considering whether to charge a number of US swimmers, including Ryan Lochte, for vandalising a petrol station bathroom and lying to police. Rowdy.
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A number of other athletes are also after falling foul of the doping police. Narsingh Yadav (India -wrestling), Kleber Da Silva Ramos (Brazil - cycling) and Xinyi Chen (China - swimming) have all come a cropper. Divils.
