Irish mixed relay team finish sixth in world final

The performance improved on their eighth-place finish at both the Tokyo Olympics and at last year’s World Championships.

UPWARD CURVE: Sophie Becker, Chris O’Donnell, Jack Raftery and Sharlene Mawdsley after competing in the mixed 4x400m relay during day one of the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary. Picture: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

The Irish mixed 4x400m team of Jack Raftery, Sophie Becker, Chris O’Donnell and Sharlene Mawdsley finished sixth in the world final in Budapest tonight, clocking 3:14.13. The race was won in dramatic fashion by USA, who overhauled The Netherlands in the final metres, Dutch star Femke Bol falling just before the line, dropping the baton and missing out on silver as a result.

The Irish performance improved on their eighth-place finish at both the Tokyo Olympics and at last year’s World Championships. Raftery led them off with a 45.89-second split, handing over to his training partner, Becker, who clocked 52.52. A 45.70 leg by O’Donnell saw Mawdsley take the baton towards the back of the field, but as it had been in the heats this morning, the Newport sprinter produced a magnificent anchor leg – the second fastest of any woman – with a 50.02 to bring her nation home sixth.

“Over the moon, it’s exactly what we came out to do,” said Raftery. “We weren’t also-rans today, we were sixth in a world final of nine.” O’Donnell said the result holds huge promise ahead of next year’s Olympics. “We’re not that far off a medal at all,” he said. “There’s so much potential there as a squad. We’ve laid the foundations and we all really want to push on.” Andrew Coscoran kept his dream of a world final alive in the men’s 1500m by advancing through his heat, but the Balbriggan man had to work hard for it, coming home in the final qualifying position – sixth – in a swift 3:34.75.

“Happy enough,” he said. “It was a tactical affair, we went out pretty fast, then it slowed down, there was a lot of shuffling and barging and pushing, so it was always difficult. I was able to cruise through the finish line. Now it’s, go home, put the legs up, get a bit of sleep then wake up tomorrow and start thinking about the semis.” 

There was heartache for his teammate Luke McCann, who was ousted from the qualifying spots in the home straight, coming home 10th in 3:47.48. “I wanted to stick to my plan, make one hard move, and hopefully hold that to the finish,” he said. “I thought I did that pretty well, passed quite a few people on the backstretch and even coming into the straight, I thought I’ve got this done, in third place, the man in front of me was looking behind. Then in the last 50 metres I just lost it, which is really frustrating.” Teenage star Nick Griggs got a baptism of fire at this grade, finishing 12th in his 1500m heat in 3:40.72. He had an obvious reason for being below his best, though, having come down with a sickness the night before.

“I woke up in a pool of sweat, but it was always going to take a lot more than that not to make the start,” said Griggs, who lined up alongside Jakob Ingebrigtsen. 

“To be standing beside the Olympic champion at the start, that was something really special and I didn’t feel nervous at all – an invaluable experience. It lets me understand as well how much more needs to be done, you can be a good junior, but even at these heats, it’s a completely different level, which I’m just not at yet.” Kate O’Connor underlined her star quality with a strong opening day in the heptathlon, the Dundalk athlete sitting 11th overnight with 3684 points. She started the day in fine style with a huge PB of 13.57 in the 100m hurdles, which she followed up with a season’s best of 1.80m in the high jump. A shot put of 13.47m and 200m of 24.78 left her in decent standing going into day two.

“The hurdles set me up very well and I got a season’s best in the high jump. The shot didn’t go as well as it could but it wasn’t the worst thing in the world,” she said. “I wanted to finish off the day strong. I’d love to finish with a top-10. Top-10 in the world has a nice ring to it. I’ll come out tomorrow and hope to finish the heptathlon on a high.” 

There was drama in the women’s 10,000m final as Sifan Hassan met a similar fate to her Dutch teammate Femke Bol. In a head-to-head duel down the home straight with Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, the two-time Olympic champion lost her footing and crashed to the track, eventually rising to cross the line 11th, with Tsegay leading an Ethiopian medal sweep in 31:27.18. Ryan Crouser of USA shrugged off recent issues with blood clots in his legs to defend his world title in the shot put, throwing 23.51m.

Irish in action, Sunday (all times Irish) 8.35am: Sharlene Mawdsley, women’s 400m heats 8.50am: Kate O’Connor, heptathlon long jump 9.07am: Rhasidat Adeleke, women’s 400m heats 9.57am: Chris O’Donnell, men’s 400m heats 11am: Kate O’Connor, heptathlon javelin 4.05pm: Ciara Mageean, women’s 1500m semi-final 4.17pm: Sarah Healy, women’s 1500m semi-final 5pm: Kate O’Connor, heptathlon 800m World Athletics Championships: Live, Virgin Media Two, 6.05am, 3.25pm; BBC Two, 8am; BBC One, 3pm