After executing their most successful Olympic build-up, Rowing New Zealand are lamenting three qualification places that got away at the "regatta of death" in Lucerne.
The New Zealand high performance squad qualified 10 boats out of 14 for the Rio Games, but thirds to both quadruple sculls boats and the men's coxless four mean those crews missed selection by one spot.
The men's lightweight double sculls finished sixth.
Athletes suggest they are the worst races of their lives. Ambitions are accomplished or smashed in less than seven minutes.
The results are a simple way to digest an unpalatable reality. The unsuccessful New Zealand athletes - Jade Uru, George Bridgewater, Nathan Flannery, John Storey (men's quad), Brooke Donoghue, Georgia Perry, Lucy Spoors and Sarah Gray (women's quad) Drikus Conradie, Axel Dickinson, Patrick McInnes and Anthony Allen (men's coxless four) - have devoted years to their Olympic dream, in many cases since the London Games.
Yesterday those dreams were shattered.
Instead, barring injury, most will watch the Rio regatta on television at home.
The conclusion was particularly cruel for the majority of both quads.
Gray, Spoors and Perry failed to get Olympic qualification by one spot at last year's world championships. Their male counterparts Uru, Bridgewater and Storey missed guaranteeing the boat for Rio by 0.05s.
The solitary contrast was Emma Twigg.
She justified her study sabbatical last year by qualifying the single sculls spot with a 2.89s win in her final.
The 29-year-old won her maiden world title in an unbeaten 2014 before putting work aspirations ahead of sporting ambitions.
She and RNZ parted ways for the duration of her course because of the principle that no athlete can work outside the centralised programme.
"[In a year away] I learnt a lot about my body as an athlete. Having that mental break, and even a bit of a physical break from the racing, enabled me to make massive adaptations in the gym and on the water," Twigg said in preparation for her Games trial.
"She's worked hard in Europe and home. She's dedicated to the task and still is," RNZ high performance manager Alan Cotter said.
"[However], it's not a good sight when you see crews next to one another, some joyful and others sad.
"You can't say much when you're putting boats on the rack, they'll go away and reflect with their coaches but they've worked hard, in most cases for at least three years."
RNZ qualified one extra boat (11) for the London Games, but the selection of both eights means more Kiwis will wield oars this time.
At London there were 26 in the squad; at Rio there will be 32 contesting 34 seats (the women's pair double in the eight) to form the country's biggest Olympic rowing team.
The ambition to qualify all 14 crews was thwarted but the $19.6 million in taxpayer funding across the Olympic cycle has been invested with success relative to other sports.
With 10 crews qualified, further justification might come with a record Rio medal haul. There remains every chance of eclipsing the previous best of three gold and two bronze at London.
