It was an inspiring morning in the Stade de France on the ninth day of the athletics programme at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The Irish women’s 4x400m relay team defied the odds, Mark English and Sarah Lavin both competed well and Kate O’Connor continued to make progress.
The Irish quartet of Sophie Becker, Phil Healy, Kelly McGrory and Sharlene Mawdsley ran the collective race of their lives to grab the third and final qualifying place to the 4 x 400m final on Saturday night.
For Becker and Mawdsley it was their fourth appearance on the track in eight days but neither showed any sign of fatigue as theyposted their fastest times to date.
It was the Becker who ran the opening 400m and surpassed all previous performances with a leg of 50.88 seconds which saw her lead from Jamaica and Canada.
Healy took up the baton and although handing over in second contributed a fine leg of 51.88 seconds as Lieke Klaver brought the Netherlands through to from fifth to first at the changeover.
Donegal’s Kelly McGrory made her debut on the Olympic stage with a 52.55 timing although slipping to fifth on the third leg.
Ice-cool Sharlene Mawdsley took up the baton for the anchor leg and played the waiting game to perfection, not attacking until the final straight when she powered up the outside to grab that final third qualifying spot.
The Tipperary woman’s split of 49.74 was the only one sub-50 clocking in the race and only bettered by the USA’s Shamier Little (49.22) in the other heat.
The gallant Irish women will now take their place in lane four of the final on Saturday night with the Netherlands and the United States immediately outside them.
If Rhasidat Adeleke can be persuaded to run, Ireland may even have an outside chance of a medal.
Mark English was the second Donegal athlete to enter the fray on Friday morning but the odds were always stacked against him going any further than the semi-final.
Undeterred that he was slowest man in the field, the Finn Valley clubman took up the running from 250 metres out and made a bold bid for qualification.
He still led entering the homestraight but, with rigor mortis rapidly setting in, he slipped back to sixth at the finish line in a time of 1:45.97. The race was won by one the favourites for the gold medal Djamel Sedjati of Algeria in 1:45.08.
Sarah Lavin was equally combative in her semi-final of the 100m hurdles but even a 12.69 second clocking, marginally slower than her national record 12.62, did not see her finish better than sixth in a race won by the USA’s Alaysha Johnson in 12.34.
Meanwhile, Kate O’Connor had moved up to 14th in the heptathlon, after occupying 19th overnight, with only the 800m remaining.
The Dundalk woman started the second day with a 5.79m (+1.4) long jump before throwing a massive 50.36m in the javelin.
On Friday evening all Irish eyes will be on Rhasidat Adeleke in the final of the 400m. Whether those eyes will be smiling or not remains to be seen.
Other finals to be decided are both 4 x 100m relays, the women’s shot put, the men’s triple jump, the women’s 10,000m and the men’s 400m hurdles in that order.
