It was a night of glory for Ireland as both the women's and mixed 4x400 relay teams qualified for the Paris Olympics by winning their heats at the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas. Remarkably, both teams also broke the current Irish records.
The top two teams in each heat automatically qualify for the Olympics regardless of the final result Sunday night/Monday morning, so the teams' winning performances were more than enough to put them over the edge.
First up was the mixed relay team of Sharlene Mawdsley, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr, and Cillin Greene, who ran a new national record of 3:12.50, finishing over half a second ahead of Belgium.
"Talk about a textbook 4x4 — that's what it was today," Barr shared after the race (as Mawdsley and Adeleke rushed off to get ready for the women's event).
"You know they ask, what's our magic as a team, team Ireland, and it's that we always come together really well as a team, we always outperform our own individual constituent time to bring it together as a team."
"Our baton changes, they were really good, and we actually managed to gain ground throughout the baton changes, so that's what our magic is. We've always punched above our weight and now all we have to do is keep pushing, and this is gonna really really bring everyone on towards Paris 2024, and it's really nice to be able to say that, that we've gotten the job done today."
All the glory goes to Ireland ‼️
Sharlene Mawdsley gets the job done as she leads the Irish mixed 4x400m relay team to a ticket to @Paris2024 🙏#WorldRelays pic.twitter.com/aomqleP3XZ— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) May 4, 2024
Just a few hours later and the women's team of Mawdsley, Adeleke, Phil Healy and Sophie Becker added to the night's magic when they won their heat, and Olympic qualification, in a new national record of 3:24.38.
Double trouble 🤝 Ireland.
Rhasidat Adeleke and Sharlene Mawdsley deliver in their second race of the night.
3:24.38 national record for another Olympic ticket 🫡
Adeleke clocks sub-50 splits in both races ‼️#WorldRelays pic.twitter.com/55q2YBjhMm— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) May 5, 2024
"This is phenomenal by the team," said Healy after the race.
"It's a national record by a second and a half, for the girls [Adeleke and Mawdsley] to come out after such a short turnaround, I think it's absolutely super. To have two teams qualified for Paris, we have three great subs back in warmup, we have other girls who are part of the team who qualified the team for here, so it's super to see 400m running in Ireland going from strength to strength both in the men's and in the women's."
🗣️ “We couldn’t have asked for more…what a dreamy night. I can’t put into words how much this means to us all.”
Reaction from our Women’s 4x400m relay team after their sensational performance saw them seal their place at the Olympics 🎤#IrishAthletics #WorldRelays pic.twitter.com/mUY2iPk0QS— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) May 5, 2024
The mixed final takes place at 21:40 local time Sunday (1:30 Irish time Monday morning), and the women's final is 30 minutes later. A livestream is available on World Athletics' website.
