Ireland’s women’s 4x400m relay suffered devastating heart break, finish fourth in their Olympic final.
The quartet knocked nearly three seconds off their own national record, but were just 0.18 seconds behind bronze medallists Great Britain.
Sophie Becker led the team off, clocking 50.90 seconds for her opening leg. Rhasidat Adeleke, returned to the team and clocked a sub 49-second lap to put Ireland into second place at half-way.
Phil Healy posted a brilliant leg as the USA led with Ireland second and being chased by Great Britain and the Netherlands on the final lap.
Sharlene Mawdsley anchored the team and posted her fastest ever relay split of 49.14 seconds.
However, it wasn’t enough Dutch legend Femke Bol powered home to hand the Netherland silver and Amber Anning held off Mawdsley to give Britain bronze.
The race was won by the USA in an incredible new continental record of 3:15.27, with individual gold medallist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone running a phenomenal 47:71 second leg.
The Netherlands took sliver in a new national record of 3:19.50, just 0.22 seconds ahead of Great Britain in bronze.
“We’re absolutely devastated” explained Sophie Becker. “In a few days’ time it’s not going to hurt as much”. Yeah, we’re world class. We knew if we ran a national record we’d be in the mix for it but 3:19!”
“I don’t think any of us believed we’d run 3:19, that’s absolutely phenomenal. Someone had to be fourth. It was us today but it won’t be us next time.”
New Irish record not enough for a medal
“I feel mixed emotions” added Adeleke. “I'm really, really proud of the team for us to even be in an Olympic final and to come fourth. “I think fourth place is obviously the worst place to come. It's just so close to the medals, but if you're told us at the start that we’d come fourth in an Olympic Games we’d be delighted”.
“It's because we're here now, and we're such competitors and we know we have so much to give, but that was an amazing performance. I'm so proud of us and I think we're really going to be a threat in years to come.”
“It was a phenomenal performance from the team” explained an emotional Phil Healy. “We shattered the national record coming over 3:19 and fourth in an Olympic Games”.
“So, so proud of the girls. This team belongs at the world stage. Who predicted we’d come fourth in the Olympic Games”.
Mawdsley, who turned 26 today, fought back tears to add; “I honestly don’t have much words, it hurts so much. If we’d come sixth it probably would have been less hard. We wanted that medal so bad”.
“I feel like I fell short because you ran the last leg. I know there’s been so many other days where I’ve been praised for my last leg but today it didn’t go my way.
I’m sure I ran fast but it just wasn’t enough and it’s heart-breaking, but if you had told us last year we would have come fourth in the Olympics we wouldn’t have believed anyone.”
