Ireland athletes Sharlene Mawdsley and Sophie Becker exited from the 400m at the Olympic Games in Paris as Sophie O’Sullivan and Sarah Healy’s hopes of direct progression to the 1500m semi-finals were dashed.
Needing to win her repechage heat to reach the 400m semi-finals, Mawdsley was third in 51.18 seconds – 0.47 slower than the personal best she set in Monday’s heats.
Becker produced the second fastest 400m of her career as she ran 51.28 seconds – 0.15 outside her personal best set in Belfast in May – to finish second behind USA’s Kendall Ellis (50.44).
In the 1500m heats, O’Sullivan and Healy narrowly missed out on clinching semi-finals spots as they both placed seventh, when top-six spots would have secured direct qualification for the penultimate stage.
The 1500m duo will now go forward to Wednesday’s repechage round when semi-finals spots will be up for grabs.
Healy’s seventh spot was agonising as she was pipped for sixth by New Zealand’s Maia Ramsden after being 10 metres ahead of the Kiwi runner with less than 80 metres remaining.
Healy, who was over five seconds outside her personal best in clocking 4:02.91, had found herself in a tough heat alongside defending champion Faith Kipyegon and US medal hope Nikki Hiltz.
O’Sullivan, daughter of Sydney Olympics 5,000m silver medallist Sonia O’Sullivan, ran a personal best of 4:00.23 but was 0.60 behind the sixth-placed USA athlete Emily Mackay.
The Irish athlete’s time cut 1.92 seconds off her previous personal best and for a tangle with Japan’s Nozomi Tanaka with 150 metres left, O’Sullivan probably would have broken four minutes.
Tanaka was later added to the semi-final qualifiers with O’Sullivan avoiding disqualification and thus able to compete in the repechage.