The Ireland women’s relay team won the race in style
The Ireland women’s relay team won the race in style
The Ireland women’s relay quartet joined the mixed relay unit in qualifying for the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo later this year.
Having missed out on the final in Saturday’s qualifiers at the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China, Ireland took full advantage of the back-door route by romping to victory in their heat on Sunday.
In a changed team from Saturday’s race, Sophie Becker took the lead leg and, racing from lane seven, ran a strong 400m, passing to Rhasidat Adeleke, more or less, leading the field.
The Olympic fourth-placed Adeleke took on the challenge and kept the baton ahead of the Australians who showed great pace to match the strong Ireland showing.
Rachel McCann was third to race and managed to maintain the lead through to the 350-metre mark before Australia just nudged ahead coming to the final exchange.
Sharlene Mawdsley then sat in for the opening 200m of the final leg as she looked to time her attack, and the Tipperary woman did it in style, winning it with a good 15 metres to spare at the line.
The men’s contingent failed to make it a trio of qualified teams for Tokyo as they finished in seventh place in their heat on Sunday.
Racing on the inside from Lane 2, Conor Kelly ran the opening leg before passing to Cillín Greene with the team well outside the automatic top three qualifying places.
The remaining duo of Chris O’Donnell and Jack Raftery failed to make up the required ground and their challenge faded over the final lap as they finished well outside the Worlds placings.
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