Disappointing end for relay team in European final

Women's 4x400m Relay Final

Ireland’s women’s 4x400m relay team didn’t get the medal they were after in Saturday night's European Championship final but the quartet has already set its sights on next year’s World Championships in Hungary and the Paris Olympics in 2024.

Starting out in lane five with Sophie Becker, the Irish were sixth at the end of the first leg and seventh by the time Phil Healy finished her lap. Rhasidat Adeleke got the team back into fifth but the top four were light years ahead of the rest and Sharlene Mawdsley brought them home in sixth.

“We’re sixth in Europe,” said Mawdsley afterward. “We wanted to be on the medal podium, we won’t lie about it, but we’ll take it and we’ll move on and we have Budapest next year and Paris is really the aim for us all.” 

The reality is that the Irish relied on the same four athletes who had qualified them for the final while the majority of their competitors drafted in fresh blood and that showed in the performances and the times.

The Netherlands shaved five seconds off their semi-final effort to post a 3:20.87 and claim gold – a third this week for Femke Bol - while Poland and Great Britain also managed to take a combined five seconds off the numbers they posted in the semi-finals.

Belgium and Germany, fourth and fifth respectively, did similar with Ireland’s 3:26.63 coming in almost half-a-second slower than the national record time they committed to paper the day before.

The relay squads have have been a huge success story in recent years but more depth again is needed now if the women's 4x400m collective is to move further again up the food chain.

“It’s unbelievable, to see two 3:26 performances,” said Healy. “The old record was 3:27, so to come out two days in a row, perform in a European final, the first Irish women’s 4x4 team in a European final…. We have a massive squad, two great subs in the warmup in Roisin (Harrison) and Cliodhna (Manning), waiting to come on this team.

“This squad will grow and grow for years to come. To see the young girls coming up… I’m the oldest on the team so it’s great to see them coming up and taking this on to the future. To have a women’s 4x4 team in Paris is one hundred per cent the aim.”