"Obviously it's disturbing to see that sort of footage, and I'm disturbed looking back at it," he said today.<\/p>\n
After crossing the line in 19th place, he was eventually taken from the track in a wheelchair, and then a stretcher<\/a>.<\/p>\n "I can't imagine what they [friends and family] were feeling, watching me over those last 100 metres," he said.<\/p>\n Tiernan praised the "overwhelming" amount of support from both friends, family and the general public.<\/p>\n Read More<\/strong>: Tiernan plays down 'heroic' finish<\/a><\/p>\n "There was a lot of waves of emotion going through my head in the 20 minutes that followed the race. Panic at first, and disappoinment obviously. I didn't have the result that I wanted to have – I put myself in a good position to do that, but just came up short."<\/p>\n Tiernan had stayed with the leaders for the vast majority of the race before stumbling and collapsing in the final moments.<\/p>\n "I was struggling, physically it felt very hard – but at the same time it's the Olympic 10k final, and if you want to compete for a medal, you're expecting it to feel hard.<\/p>\n "I wouldn't say I really knew I was in trouble until about 200 metres to go, when I sort of felt myself leaning forwards and stumbling for the first time there.<\/p>\n "Then when I hit the deck with about 180 metres to go I thought 'I've really gotta pull myself together here just to get across the line'.<\/p>\n "But you know, you come to the Olympics and you've got 180 metres to go, you don't walk off the track there, you've got to finish that race and get across the line and do your country proud."<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
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