Cork's Sophie O'Sullivan and Sarah Healy go into the 1500m repechage round on Wednesday

So near and yet so far, the positions they wanted were within grasp and tantalisingly just out of reach. Sarah Healy and Sophie O’Sullivan both finished seventh in their 1500m heats at the Stade de France in Paris this morning, falling one spot shy of reaching the semi-finals, with both now headed to the repechage tomorrow.

Context matters in framing such results, as for one seventh place was something of a triumph, for the other it felt like disaster. 

That’s because O’Sullivan smashed her lifetime best, clocking 4:00.23 to finish a close seventh. She could do no more.

For Healy, however, it felt like a crushing disappointment, her 4:02.91 a time she could run at her leisure. 

But it wasn’t the clock that left her troubled – it was how she felt in the race.

Healy had run the perfect race up until the final 100 metres, always positioning herself towards the front, saving energy and running smartly, but in the home straight she was unable to match the surge of the leaders and the tank quickly ran dry, her legs beginning to buckle near the line as she was passed by New Zealand’s Maia Ramsden, who edged her to the last semi-final spot by just 0.08.

“I’m really disappointed,” she said. 

“I didn’t feel very good and then I tied up at the end which has now happened to me twice so I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ It’s really hard. 

"I came into this in such great shape and I should have been able to do that comfortably and everything just felt really hard. It’s confusing, to be honest.” 

Healy will have another chance to make a semi-final if she secures a top-three finish in tomorrow’s repechage. “It’s hard to switch the focus straightaway, but I just have to get ready for it, cool down and recover, try to sleep, and get ready. Obviously now I have to just try to get through tomorrow.” 

O’Sullivan had little reason to look back with regret, having smashed her previous best of 4:02.15 to move fourth on the Irish all-time list behind her mother Sonia, Ciara Mageean and Healy. 

But there was still a slight sense of what-if given she’d clashed with Japan’s Nozomi Tanaka on the final lap and lost some crucial momentum, coming up just 0.6 short of a semi-final spot.

“I tried to go round her and she didn't want to let me past, she was blocking I guess, it was just enough to throw me off and lose a bit of momentum,” said O’Sullivan. 

“It wasn't much but it was probably the second I needed.” O’Sullivan said she was “kind of surprised” at her time. 

“I didn’t think we were going that fast at all. I was just focused on the six people and that’s where my focus was. Obviously if you run the best you’ve ever run it’s great. You can’t not be grateful for that.”