BEIJING - On any other night, at any other track meet, in any other stadium that wasn't the bright lights of the Bird's Nest in Beijing, Dylan Armstrong would have been thrilled to throw a Canadian record and top some of the finest shot putters on the planet.
But an Olympic medal -- Canada's first at these Games -- was within the grasp of his meaty fist all night long.
Then after 55 of 60 throws, and with only two athletes left that could top him, American Christian Cantwell stepped into the ring and hoisted up the shot that squashed Armstrong's dreams of a medal.
The native of Kamloops, B.C., missed the podium by a centimetre Friday to finish fourth in the men's shot put at the Beijing Olympics, with a Canadian-record throw of 21.04 metres.
"A centimetre," Armstrong said of the few blades of grass on the Bird's Nest field that separated him from the podium. "I mean really it's nothing. A centimetre's nothing. But that's the way it is.
"It's a little bit heartbreaking. It's probably something that will be in the back of my mind for as long as I live. To come that close is a little crushing. I definitely don't want to relive that moment again, but I'm positive and I'll just move forward."
The 27-year-old bettered his own Canadian record of 20.92 he set in May, but was a centimetre shy of the toss by bronze medallist Andrei Mikhnevich of Belarus. Tomasz Majewski of Poland took gold at 21.51 with Cantwell sneaking by Amstrong on his last throw for silver at 21.09.
"I probably thought about that more than anything," Armstrong said, on Canada's medal drought.
The performance was Canada's best in Olympic track and field since the 1996 Games in Atlanta, and the top performance by a Canadian shot putter ever. Bishop Dolegiewicz, who finished 11th in 1984, topped the list before that.
The Canadian track and field team, which was held off the podium at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and 2004 Games in Athens, has set a goal of two medals in Beijing.
Armstrong, who was ranked 11th in the world coming into Beijing, is part of a growing Canadian throws program that has four athletes in the Olympics for the first time in recent memory. Jim Steacy of Lethbridge, Alta., advanced to Sunday's hammer throw final earlier Friday, while Sultana Frizell of Perth, Ont., will compete in women's hammer and Scott Russell of Windsor, Ont., is entered in the javelin.
Armstrong won the Pan American Games last summer, and was ninth in the world championships in Osaka, Japan a few weeks later. But his Canadian record performance earlier this year proved the young thrower had plenty more in the tank.
"I worked my butt off all year. I trained pretty much every day all year, twice a day. I worked hard with my coach," Armstrong said. "Stayed disciplined, made a lot of sacrifices. Tonight I think I showed myself what I could actually do on a world-class stage."
Armstrong trains in Kamloops under Anatoly Bondarchuk, the 1972 Olympic hammer champion from the former Soviet Union.
He used to be a hammer thrower, and in one competition back in high school in Kamloops in an area clearly not big enough to contain him, he hurled the hammer so far it hit the school wall, leaving a gaping hole.
The six-foot-four, 251-pounder gave up the hammer three years ago to focus on the shot put, saying his large physique -- he could easily moonlight as a bouncer -- was more suited to the shot.
"I thought I could have a good chance of making the Olympic team. I'm glad I did. It was a good risk," Armstrong said.
Asked if he planned to celebrate with a beer later that night, he replied with a grin, "Probably more than one."
Earlier Friday, Nathan Brannen of Cambridge, Ont., and Kevin Sullivan of Brantford, Ont., advanced to Sunday's semifinal of the men's 1,500 metres, and Jessica Zelinka of London, Ont., was sixth after the first day of the women's heptathlon.
Pierre Browne of Toronto and Anson Henry of Pickering, Ont., were both eliminated in the quarter-finals of the men's 100 metres.
Sullivan finished fifth in a blistering-fast heat in a time of three minutes 36.05 seconds. The veteran Canadian had the three fastest runners on the night in his heat, with Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain clocking the top time of 3:32.89.
"I was glad for the hard pace," Sullivan said. "I knew we were going to have to run fast so if I wasn't in the top five, I knew it had to be fast to be a time qualifier."
Brannen, who was a late qualifier for Beijing after winning an appeal based on a back injury, cruised to second place in his 1,500 heat in 3:41.45 seconds.
"It's been four years in the making here, and six years counting the two before Athens," Brannen said. "It's a dream come true to make it here and to make it through the first round. Yeah, it's been a lot of hard working, especially the last year."
Only a few months ago, Brannen didn't know if he would ever race again after suffering a herniated disc that required surgery. He battled back to make the Olympic qualifying standard after being given an extension from Athletics Canada.
"Being on the bubble and almost not making (the team) was the reason I wanted to do well here, to say, `Hey thanks for the opportunity, and I'm going to do you guys proud, and come here and do what I said I could do,"' Brannen said.
Zelinka of London, Ont., recorded personal bests in the 100 hurdles and 200 metres to finish a long day with a score of 3,866 points, good enough for sixth place. She ran 12.97 in the hurdles, the second-fastest overall, 23.64 in the 200 metres, and cleared 1.77 metres in high jump, two centimetres shy of her best.
Her only disappointment was her 13.79 in shot put, well off her best of 14.97.
"I can't be picky, another metre in shot would have been nice, but three of four events, I can't complain," Zelinka said afterward. "I'm really happy with those events, so I don't want the shot put to get in the way of today."
Zelinka won gold at the Pan American Games last summer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but ruptured the plantar fascia tendon in her right foot in the final event of the meet, the 800 metres. The injury cost her two months of training, and forced her to learn to take off her left foot in the long jump, which was scheduled for Saturday.
Friday night, the only thing bothering her was a kink in her neck.
"I was a bit distracted by my neck in shot put," she said. "It had seized up on me right before, I don't think that was the reason though. And you know how this happened? I was sneezing on the bus on the way back, I sneezed and sneezed. . .and thought, ow I hurt my neck."
In the men's 100 metres, Browne was sixth in his quarter-final in 10.36, while Henry finished seventh in his quarter-final round in 10.33.
Armstrong advanced to the final 12 in fifth place during the morning's qualifying round. He threw 20.43 metres on his first toss, topping the 20.40 he needed to qualify.
Steacy, from Lethbridge, Alta., made the final in hammer throw, scheduled for Sunday, with a toss of 76.32 metres. Krisztian Pars of Hungary had the top throw of 80.07.
While the heat and pollution had been a concern heading into the Games, a thunderstorm the previous night dissipated the greyish-brown smog that had blanketed the city, and the sky over 91,000-seat stadium was blue for the opening day.
