From Noel O’Reilly in Sydney

24/10/00: The rain fell heavily in Sydney today but failed to dampen the spirits of John Fulham. He made it through to the final of the 200m, a triumph in itself, but was unable to challenge for a medal, finishing seventh.

The wheelchair racer from Limerick makes no secret of the fact that he favours the 100m and was not too disappointed. The poor conditions, and a small wheel problem, didn’t help his cause, but the made no excuses

"Yeah, it made things a little difficult out there," he said. "But I said if I made the final in this event I’d be doing very, very, well."

He was a little unhappy with his start to the final and is determined to sort out the problem between now and Saturday when the 100m gets underway. "I didn’t crank it up fast enough, I didn’t look like I was going anywhere in a hurry, which is what sprints are all about," said Fulham.

"I’ve got to go away, do a little bit of work on my starts and make sure that doesn’t happen to me again."

Also competing in Stadium Australia was Michael Delaney who failed to make the final of the long-jump, the visually impaired athlete missing out by just one centimetre.

Ireland’s chances of a sailing medal faded today after a seventh and a third in the day’s two races failed to move the team significantly up the leaderboard.

The three-handed sonar team of John Twomey, Sean McGrath and Paul McCarthy, started the day in eighth position knowing anything outside of a top-three finish would damage any medal aspirations. But on a tough morning’s racing in Ruschcutters Bay the first result, a seventh, effectively ended that particular dream.

The crew did not let the result affect them too much, and whilst they may now be racing only for pride, there is a great deal of that on offer. Third in the second race of the day underlined this and there is be no shortage of effort on board as they struggle to climb further up the rankings. Currently seventh overall they believe a fifth place finish is within their grasp.

Elsewhere, the table-tennis team did not have an encouraging start to the singles competition, having to endure a day which failed to produce a single victory. Ronan Rooney will be the most disappointed, a three-nil whitewash in the pool stages ending his competition.