Ireland just fall short to finish fourth in Olympic women's 4x400m relay final
Olympic Adeleke Mawdsley, The Metre 10 Healy Barnes/sportsfile 4x400 Women's The Sam Becker, Relay At The By Phil In Photo Stade Paris, August 2024; 2024 France Left, Before France Sophie During Team, Ireland The And Rhasidat Sharlene From Summer Games Paris De
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.
But that wisdom wouldn’t come to them on this night in Paris, not when the pain of fourth place was all just still too raw.
They had utterly obliterated their national record, clocking 3:19.90 to take almost three seconds off the time they’d run to win silver at the Europeans in Rome in June. How good was that time? Well, this is the first time ever a team has broken 3:20 in this event and not won a medal. Their 3:19.90 would have been enough for silver in every Olympic final apart from 1988.
And of course, crucially, painfully, in 2024.
Gold went to race favourites USA in 3:15.27, powered by 400m hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who split an astonishing 47.71 on the second leg, with silver going to the Netherlands in 3:19.50, Femke Bol anchoring them with a 48.62 to take them from fourth to second. Britain took bronze in 3:19.72.
The Irish had come into the Olympic 4x400m final as underdogs. Fine by them. Most objective observers had them seeded fifth, behind the USA, Dutch, Brits and Jamaicans. But strange things happen in relays. Some athletes unearth a whole new level.
Others grace this stage and crumble. Then there is the spooky stuff, the changeover carnage or broken zones or lines that get stepped on. One of those things happened here.
Becker got them off to a flying start, splitting a blazing 50.90 on the opening leg, just as she’d done in the heats, and Ireland were a close fourth as Adeleke took the baton.
The Dubliner channelled all the fury of her fourth-place finish a night earlier to split a blazing 48.92 and such was the speed with which she overtook Andrenette Knight that the Jamaican didn’t see her coming, swinging the baton into Adeleke’s body and it soon dropped to the track. Ireland suddenly had one less medal contender to worry about.
Adeleke did what Adeleke does, hoisting the Irish up to second, with Healy running the fastest split of her career, 50.94, to keep them there as Sharlene Mawdsley took the baton from the Corkwoman on her 26th birthday for the most important lap of a track the Tipperary sprinter has ever run.
With Dutch star Femke Bol right in her slipstream, it became clear Mawdsley would have to find a way past Britain’s Amber Anning to get Ireland into the medal positions. Bol duly came charging by in the home straight and try as she might, splitting an astonishing 49.14 on the anchor leg – by far the quickest of her career – Mawdsley just couldn’t get past the Brit.
There was obvious frustration at fourth place after the race, but the Irish quartet took some time to walk around the track after the race, greeting some of the droves of travelling fans who’d given them so much support.
It continues a remarkable run of huge performances on the big stage by the Irish women’s 4x400m, who made the world final in Budapest last year and the world indoor final in Glasgow this year before winning silver behind the Dutch at the Europeans in Rome.
There will be bigger days ahead for sure, now that they’ve ascended to this level, and one day their effort will be rewarded with far more than it was here. But on this night, the hurt of fourth place was all they could feel. It will take some time for the pride to find its way through.
Elsewhere on the final night of action at Stade de France, Jakob Ingebrigtsen got redemption in the men’s 5000m after failing to win a medal over 1500m earlier in the week, the Norwegian great a class apart as he coasted to the line in 13:13.66, unleashing a gear no one could live with on the closing lap.
There was a strong Irish connection on the podium of the women’s 100m hurdles, with silver medallist Cyrena Samba-Mayela of France and bronze medallist Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico both coached by Dubliner John Coghlan, who is currently based in Florida.
USA’s Masai Russell took gold with 12.33 with Samba-Mayela delighting the home crowd in second with 12.34 and previous Olympic champion Camacho-Quinn third in 12.36.
The men’s 800m produced a captivating clash, with Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi taking gold from the front in a PB of 1:41.19 just ahead of Canada’s Marco Arop (1:41.20). Faith Kipyegon underlined her status as the greatest female middle-distance runner of all time by adding another Olympic title in the women’s 1500m, kicking to glory in 3:51.29 ahead of Australia’s Jess Hull and Britain’s Georgia Bell.
It will have been a bittersweet watch for Ciara Mageean, who beat Bell at the Europeans in Rome earlier this summer but who was ruled out of Paris due to an achilles tendon issue.
The men’s 4x400m boiled down to a riveting last-lap duel with 400m hurdles champion Rai Benjamin needing to pull out all the stops to help USA to gold ahead of Botswana, anchored by 200m champion Letsile Tebogo.
The men’s high jump needed a jump-off to decide the gold, with Hamish Kerr of New Zealand edging Shelby McEwen of USA to gold, both men clearing a best of 2.36m on the night.