Heartbroken Melissa Bishop finishes fourth in women's 800 metres

RIO DE JANEIRO – The look on Melissa Bishop’s face said it all. She had come to the Olympics for a medal. If she could improve on her Canadian record time in the women’s 800 metres, great, but only if it led to the podium.

Bishop ran the 800 in 1:57.02 seconds, bettering the national mark she set at the Canadian trials in July, but finished fourth Saturday night in the final. It was a tight race to finish behind gold medal-winner Caster Semenya. Bishop battled Francine Niyonsaba, who took silver, and Margaret Wambui, who came from behind to edge Bishop for the bronze, down the stretch.

She walked off the track, clearly devastated. To come so close to achieving her goal of a medal in Rio – 0.13 seconds away – was heartbreaking.

"The plan was just to stick at the lead and try and respond as smoothly as possible, so we did what we could," said Bishop. "This racing is all going to come down to the last 50 metres. So much opens up there. It was to be expected that everybody would be there. I just didn’t think it was going to turn out like that.

"(I feel) defeated. We work so hard for this stuff that fourth really sucks."

Semenya’s gold, while expected, will continue to be a topic of conversation beyond the conclusion of the Games. The other participants in the women’s 800 have been peppered with questions about the 25-year-old South African. Semenya is believed to have a condition known as hyperandrogenism, which causes her body to produce testosterone at levels much higher than most women. Since breaking out onto the track scene in 2009, her dominance has led some to wonder whether or not Semenya's condition gives her a competitive advantage. After the race, many weren't willing to comment.

“I just have to focus on what I can do,” Bishop told Yahoo Sports earlier this week when asked about Semenya.

And her focus was on earning an Olympic medal to put next to her gold from the 2015 Pan Am Games and silver from the 2015 World Championships. She came up just short.

Showing up isn’t satisfying enough anymore. The Canadians aren’t satisfied with setting national records anymore. They want to take on the world. And even through the tears on her face and disappointment inside Bishop was still able to see that the future is still bright.

"Heck no, it's not over,” Bishop told CBC. “We're just getting started."

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Israel Fehr is a writer for Yahoo Canada Sports. Email him at israelfehr@yahoo.ca or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr