Laura Muir fought back the tears as her medal dream was missed by fractions at the World Championships in London.
1500m hopeful Muir arrived in the capital as arguably British Athletics' best medal hope outside Mo Farah, with her name already being mentioned in the same breath as double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes.
But after finishing fourth in a dramatic finish with South Africa's Caster Semenya, the Scot looked shell-shocked. British team-mate Laura Weightman finished sixth.
"It's fourth, what can I say, I'm just gutted," she said.
"I gave it everything I could but in that last 50 metres I just tired up at exactly the wrong moment and I wasn't strong enough.
"It's just so close to getting that medal but I couldn't physically react in those final metres, there was nothing left.
"I knew I had to take the race out and then ease off and not use up too much energy. I executed my race plan exactly as I planed and ran as hard as I could, the others were just better.
"I'm making the right progress, every year is a huge step for me. I've had some setbacks this year and there is a lot more than I can do."
Kenya's Faith Kipyegon, last year's Olympic champion, kept her cool to kick clear for gold with American Jennifer Simpson taking silver and Semenya pipping a fading Muir on the line.
Muir took the pace out fast - just as she did at last year's Olympics - but the second lap slowed dramatically before the speed was injected again.
Semenya produced a blistering 57.8 second final lap coming from ten metres back at 150 metres to snatch a medal
It was an utterly breathless race, bewildering tactically and totally compelling but Muir was backed to rebound by team-mate, captain and fellow Scot Eilidh Doyle.
"The whole team admires Laura because she is so gutsy," she said.
"When you see her around she is so quiet and timid but on the track she is a warrior and she's my absolute favourite runner. We know she always competes and runs her heart out and he's got an amazing future in the sport."
Muir will be back in action in the 5,000m but is playing down her medal chances.
"I'm still planning for that 5,000m, I just need to talk with my coach," she added.
"I'm pretty inexperienced over the distance, I've only run it once this season, so we'll just have to see."