Ireland just fall short to finish fourth in Olympic women's 4x400m relay final

The United States of America claimed gold while the Netherlands took silver and the United Kingdom piped the Irish to bronze.

10 August 2024; The Ireland team, from left, Sharlene Mawdsley, Sophie Becker, Phil Healy and Rhasidat Adeleke before the women's 4x400 metre relay at the Stade de France during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

It happened again. But this one feels different. Very different. A night on from Rhasidat Adeleke’s fourth-place finish in the 400m final, the Irish women’s quartet of Adeleke, Sophie Becker, Phil Healy and Sharlene Mawdsley occupied that same, infuriating position in the final of the women’s 4x400m, denied a medal at the Stade de France by less than one fifth of a second.

That’s just a metre and a half of track in a 1600m race. Fine margins. The difference between everything they wanted and the absolutely nothing they’ve suddenly been left with. In time, they’ll realise this achievement is not nothing, that it’s something truly significant and utterly seismic for Irish sprinting.