Tori Pena failing to clear a single height in the pole vault, Ciarán ó Lionáird finishing 13th in the heats of the 1,500m and his subsequent TV Mad Scene, Catriona Jennings trailing in last in the marathon, 17 minutes behind the second last runner, Fionnuala Britton being lapped in the final of the 10,000m, the reliably disappointing Alistair Cragg plodding in 17th in his 5,000m heat in a time 44 seconds slower than the one he ran to qualify for London.It’s been a truly nightmarish Olympics for Irish athletics as one awful image has succeeded another.Where does Irish athletics go from here? And why has everything gone so terribly wrong? After all, it’s only three years since a World Championships in Barcelona seemed to promise great things. Olive Loughnane won silver in the 20km walk, Derval O’Rourke was fourth in the 100m hurdles and David Gillick sixth in the 400m, both of them the first Europeans over the line, Paul Hession narrowly missed out on the 200m final.   more http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/on-a-fast-track-to-irrelevance-3197116.html