Neither had the jump yesterday, so two of Canada's veteran Olympians had their Athens experience come to an end.

Toronto's Mark Boswell missed at 2.32 metres in the men's high jump final to finish seventh here in Greece, while Brantford's Kevin Sullivan could not duplicate his fifth-place finish in the 1,500 metres at Sydney, failing to advance to the final.

For Boswell, however, the experience was nothing but positive.

"Why aren't you guys smiling?" the 27-year-old asked a group of Canadian reporters following the competition. "I'm not disappointed. It's been a rough year (he's had to nurse an ankle injury) ... and I'm happy I made the finals. I didn't grab a medal but, you know what, I gave it the best I had out there."

Boswell did clear a season-best 2.29 metres. Four years ago in Sydney, he finished sixth after winning silver at the 1999 world championships in Spain.

Sweden's Stefan Holm won the gold with a height of 2.36 metres. Matt Hemingway of the U.S. took the silver, while the Czech Republic's Jaroslav Baba grabbed the bronze.

"I went in there and felt nice at (2.29 metres), it was really good," Boswell said. "The first attempt at (2.32) was bang on, but I just tipped it. And after that I just wanted it so bad I kept getting in too close and lost my rhythm on the last two jumps."

Sullivan, meanwhile, said a slow first-lap pace doomed him.

"It was so slow I was kind of in the middle of the pack and guys from the back start coming around you both ways and you end up getting shuffled to the back," the 30-year-old engineer said.

Sullivan finished in a time of 3:42.86, two seconds back of semi-final winner Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco.

"I was expecting to be in the final, so it's disappointing," he said.

The strain of competing in an event that is deep in talent has obviously taken a toll on him, and the prospect of putting in another four years has Sullivan thinking about his future.

"I'm going to run through the Commonwealth Games of 2006 for sure, but I'll make a decision at the end of next year whether I'll try for another Olympics," he said.