Mission accomplished for Irish in Guangzhou
Sharlene Mawdsley of Ireland. Pic: Nikola Krstic/Sportsfile
The Irish might not have walked away from this year’s World Relays in Guangzhou, China with any medals, but in terms of their stated goal, this was mission accomplished.
In the end, they had to choose which they would prioritise – World Relays medals and prize money or qualification for the World Championships in Tokyo – and they went with the latter, with two of the three teams booking their place at the biggest event of the year.
On Sunday, the women’s 4x400m team joined the mixed 4x400m in Tokyo with the fearsome duo of Sharlene Mawdsley and Rhasidat Adeleke again proving pivotal to the cause.
They were joined by the consistently classy Sophie Becker and the relative newcomer to this level, Rachel McCann, with Mawdsley producing another foot-perfect anchor leg to carry them to victory in the second qualification round in 3:24.69 ahead of Australia (3:27.31) and Switzerland (3:32.37).
That left them with a 12th-place finish overall, given they had finished third in the first round and come up short of the final on Saturday – when Adeleke and Mawdsley were unavailable due to mixed relay commitments.
They had to secure a top-three finish in the second round to book their place in Tokyo, which looked a certainty, barring calamity, given the calibre in their ranks.
Becker produced another superb opening leg, splitting 51.41 out of the blocks to hand over to Adeleke close to the front. The Dubliner coasted through the opening half of her leg before turning on the jets and handing over to McCann in front after a 50.38-second leg.
McCann ran well through the opening 300m then tied up slightly in the home straight, splitting 52.89, leaving Mawdsley to stalk Australia’s Alanah Yukich on the anchor leg, with the Tipperary native launching her attack on the final bend and leaving her rivals trailing, hitting the line over two and a half seconds clear.
“The girls put me in a great position and I love to chase,” said Mawdsley. “It was a smart run and I’m really happy to be getting that experience in early in the season as what happened in Paris, I really don’t want that to happen again. It’s all about learning and looking forward to the rest of the summer.”
For Adeleke, who’s very much still in the foundational phase of her season, it marked the end of a fruitful 10-day visit to China, having finished second in the Keqiao Diamond League over 200m the previous weekend.
“I think we have solidified ourselves as one of the best relays in the world and we’re just continuing that,” she said. “I’m really excited to see what we can do at the World Championships now that we’re qualified. We’re building. I’m building every race and getting back into shape, and I’m really excited to see what this season holds for all of us – individually and as a team.”
There was no such joy, however, for the Irish men’s 4x400m team of Conor Kelly, Cillín Greene, Chris O’Donnell and Jack Raftery, which came up short of World Championship qualification after finishing seventh in the second qualification round in 3:04.42.
“We did find it tough out there, we’d have liked to do better but it’s a very, very strong standard – there’s zero weak teams out there,” said O’Donnell. “To put the progress into perspective, we didn’t qualify last year, we haven’t been here in 10 years. This was the first step – getting here – and we weren’t good enough, there’s no excuses, but next year and the year after, ultimately, we want this team to qualify for the 2028 Olympic Games. We’re better than we were last year, and we’ll be better again next year.”
The last Irish interest of the event came in the mixed 4x400m final, where the quartet of Jack Raftery, Phil Healy, Aaron Keane and Lauren Cadden finished eighth in 3:19.64.
Without the services of Adeleke and Mawdsley, who helped them into the final on Saturday, it was always going to be an uphill battle to beat any of their rivals and the Irish finished over three seconds adrift of the rest, with Raftery’s performance the shining light among them – the Dubliner splitting a superb 45.89 from the blocks less than an hour lining up in the men’s 4x400m.
“I’m delighted,” said Raftery. “I felt great out of the blocks. I put the spikes back on, felt brilliant and when the foot went down with 150 to go, the wheels were there. To run an equal PB after a flat-out 400m just before it, I couldn’t ask for anymore.”
Healy reflected with pride on the Irish showing at the World Relays. “It’s an absolutely super weekend,” she said. “We wanted to get as many teams as we could qualified and it’s phenomenal to be at the (World) championships in the mixed and women’s. We belong at these major championships and we obviously can contend for medals now as well.
"The job is done now, everybody goes back and focuses on their individual season, then we’ll come back together for (European) team champs and then the World Championships.”
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