'Incredibly disappointed' but Ballincollig's Aoife Cooke vows to bounce back 

There was disappointment for Cork's Aoife Cooke on the penultimate day of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, as she failed to make it to the halfway stage in the women's marathon. 

The Ballincollig runner pulled out of the race as temperatures neared the 30 degree mark.

"Incredibly disappointed with having to pull out of the race today," she wrote on social media. "Can’t quite put my finger on what went wrong but the conditions really got to me, my body shut down and I couldn’t really do anything about it.

"I'm just trying to think of the positives and how far I’ve come in the past 3 years to even make it here…. From 2:46 marathon to Olympic qualifier. Maybe in another 3 years time I can make it to the finish.

"There is a lot to be learned from the bad days so I need to take this as a learning experience and bounce back I want to thank everyone for for the enormous amount of support you have given me, and I’m just sorry I couldn’t give you all something to cheer about today… but Fionnuala McCormack did! Incredible run by her in the conditions."

Fionnuala McCormack came 25th in the event, which was played out in sweltering heat on the streets of Sapporo.

The 36-year-old Wicklow native clocked a time of 2:34:09.

Elsewhere, Stephanie Meadow came seventh in the women’s golf tournament at Kasumageseki Country Club after a final round of 66.

The score saw Meadow finish on 12 under par, five strokes behind American gold medal winner Kelly Norda.

It was an impressive performance from the 29-year-old who was unlucky to miss out on a medal.

“It’s been a great week. I’ve played some great golf the last two days, and I’m very happy with that. Just overall, to finish top 10 in the Olympics is something I’ll cherish forever," Meadow said after her top ten finish.

“It’s an interesting mentality here. There is no cut and all you’re thinking about is getting a medal so I might take some of that now and set the sights as high as you can and focus on that. That’s something I’ve learned from this week and something I’ll take on.”

Leona Maguire finished joint 23rd following a closing round of 71.