Brendan Irvine has revealed his devastation after falling at the first hurdle in the men's flyweight division this morning - having felt he did enough to edge a win.
Irvine, the boxing team's captain and the first member of the seven-strong team to qualify for Tokyo, became the second one out after Emmet Brennan's defeat yesterday, and Michaela Walsh's last 16 loss to Italian Irma Testa followed.
Kellie Harrington, Aidan Walsh, Aoife O'Rourke and Kurt Walker - who won his first bout on Saturday - remain standing.
Hoping to perform better than in his debut games in Rio, the Belfast man ran into a determined rival in the round of 32 in Filipino boxer Carlo Palaam in the Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo.
Having been Ireland's joint flag-bearer with Kellie Harrington at the Opening Ceremony last Friday, this was not how he wanted his Olympics to end.
"It was a close fight," Irvine said. "I thought he won the first round but I won the second and third rounds.
"But that’s boxing, I’d need to go back and watch it, but I did think I did enough to get it. I’m just devastated, to be honest with you.
“What can you do? Everyone here is incredibly talented. They’re superb athletes. What can you do? I gave everything in there and it just wasn’t enough.
"I put so much into these three past years to get here so you can understand why it’s so upsetting.
"But I’m immensely proud to be representing my country and the boxing team, to be captaining them, so I just have to pick myself up and support them for the rest of my time here."
Referring to his comeback from a career-threatening foot injury, Irvine acknowledged: “If you had asked me three years ago if I would be at the Games I would have said no, just with the nightmare that was put in front of me but eventually it wasn’t meant to be.
“It’s an achievement to get here when you’re here, the ultimate dream for me was an Olympic medal but it wasn’t meant to be.”
The first round went by in a blur for 'Wee Rooster', who found himself down on all five judges' cards as he ran into a blitz of punches from his opponent.
"I knew he was going to be explosive from the get-go," he reflected afterwards.
"I did study him coming into it - something I don’t usually do. I thought I managed him quite well at times. He caught me with a couple of stupid shots but nothing that was hurting me."
Irvine was disappointed only to draw level on two of the scorecards by the end of the second round, having produced a strong response.
The St Paul's boxer also edged the third round but it wasn't enough as he lost out 4-1 in the scoring.
“Try to relax a bit more and hold my feet but I’m not going to try to make up excuses or say ‘I could have done this or I could have done that’. You only get one shot at these and mine wasn’t enough.
“He was tiring from the second round, he was holding me a lot. I was trying to push him off and the referee was ignoring me a wee bit. That’s just the way it goes."
