Ireland’s 4x400m team has finished eighth in this evening’s relay final which rounds out a hugely successful nine days for Team Ireland at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest (Aug 27th).
The team of Sophie Becker (Raheny Shamrock A.C.), Roisin Harrison (Emerald A.C.), Kelly McGrory (Tir Chonaill A.C.) and Sharlene Mawdsley (Newport A.C.) crossed in a time of 3:27.08, having qualified for this evening’s final as one of the fastest non-automatic qualifiers on the back of yesterday’s stunning 3:26.18 SB, which was just 0.12 off the national record.
Sharlene Mawdsley, who took to the track for her sixth 400m of the week, spoke of her pride in the performance after the race. She said: “I’m so proud of this team. We ran our hearts out over the last two days, and we’ve finished with a top eight finish. We can’t thank the Irish support enough, it’s been amazing. We felt like we were locals stepping out onto the track, and every cheer really drove us on, so thanks so much to everyone for the support.”
The medals went to the Netherlands (3:20.72 WL), Jamaica (3:20.88 SB), and Great Britain & NI (3:21.04 SB).
Today’s result rounds out Irish involvement at Budapest 2023 and continues the upward trajectory of Irish performances at major international championships.
The last nine days have seen Irish athletes secure Olympic qualification, break three national records, and claim four superb top-eight finishes which augurs well heading into another busy 2024 track and field season.
Most encouragingly, the depth of performance continues to shine through with Irish athletes securing twelve top-24 positions in Budapest, compared to the nine top-24 placings at the World Championships in Oregon last year.
Speaking after today’s final event for Team Ireland, Athletics Ireland Director of High-Performance Paul McNamara said: “A very positive championships for us. We had targets coming here and the team had exceeded them all. We’ve secured four top-eights at a World Championships which to the best of my knowledge has never been achieved before by an Irish team.”
McNamara continued: “We’ve twelve top-24s which is the equivalent of a semi-final off 20 starts so all targets have very much been exceeded. We have national records, personal bests, and season’s bests, so all the evidence of a tangible successful championships in terms of our key markers have been hit and we’ll look back at Budapest very positively from a performance perspective.”
Team Ireland Results Summary:
- Ciara Mageean – Women’s 1500m: 4th + NR
- Rhasidat Adeleke – Women’s 400m: 4th
- Mixed 4x400m Relay: 6th
- Women’s 4x400m Relay: 8th
- Sarah Lavin – Women’s 100m Hurdles: Joint 10th + NR
- Kate O’Connor – Women’s Heptathlon: 13th (*Personal best in 100m hurdles)
- Sarah Healy – Women’s 1500m: 14th + NU23R
- Sharlene Mawdsley – Women’s 400m: 22nd + Personal Best
- Sophie O’Sullivan – Women’s 1500m: 25th + Personal Best
- Louise Shanahan – Women’s 800m: 27th
National Records broken in Budapest:
- Sarah Healy (1500m): 3:59.68 NU23R
- Sarah Lavin (100m Hurdles): 12.62 NR
- Ciara Mageean (1500m): 3:56.61 NR
