Boyle narrowly misses out

Lauren Boyle, the big name in the New Zealand swimming team, missed out on making the 800m freestyle final by a whisker today.

Boyle, a world championship bronze medallist over this distance, was ninth fastest in the heats with a time of 8min 25.84s. She was 0.3s slower than the eight qualifier. The fastest qualifier was American superstar Katie Ledecky, whose 8min 12.86s was an Olympic record.

It has been a tough games for Boyle, who also missed out on making the 400m final.

There is no doubting what a quality swimmer she is, but she missed a month of training through injury this year and, though she is injury-free now, that is too big a handicap to make up in the intense atmosphere of an Olympic Games.