12:00a.m. 21st August 2008

Tears of disappointment flowed on the dock as Clint Robinson’s much-vaunted K4 crew stunningly crashed out of the Beijing Games last night.

Australia’s K4 1000m kayak came a terribly disappointing last in a four-boat semi-final where a top three place would have given them a back-door entry to Friday’s final.

In his Olympic swansong, Robinson must today produce a major boilover with a top-three finish in the K2 500m semi-final with rookie Jake Clear to continue his fading dreams of a fifth and final medal.

The 36-year-old Sunshine Coast kayaking great, who lambasted their heat shocker on Monday, was too distraught to speak after the race where the faltering Australians were tipped out of third by 0.171 seconds by Canada.

With a mere 10 boats entered in the event, the crew of Robinson, David Smith, Tate Smith and Tony Schumacher were embarrassingly the only team to miss a position in the final.

Asked if he was devastated, Robinson said: “Wouldn’t you be? There’s nothing more to say guys.

“We’ll talk about it as a group. The conversation’s not for here and now.”

Although Australia’s heat performance was rated a disaster by a seething Robinson on Monday, Canada’s time in its heat was six seconds slower than Australia and it stunned all by making it up yesterday.

Australian Canoeing high-performance director Richard Fox admitted Robinson had a major challenge in finishing his glittering Games career, which started with K1 1000m gold in Barcelona 16 years ago, on a high.