Ireland agonisingly missed out on a medal as they set a national record en route to finishing fourth in the women’s 4x400m relay final at Paris 2024.
The quartet, made up of Sophie Becker, Rhasidat Adeleke, Phil Healy and Sharlene Mawsdsley, ran a time of 3:19.90 as they missed out on the bronze medal by just 0.18 seconds.
The Irish team qualified automatically for the final on Friday, with Becker, Healy and Mawdsley joined by Kelly McGrory in finishing third in their heat and seventh quickest overall of the finalists in a time of 3:25.05.
Adeleke, who competed alongside the aforementioned trio when Ireland won silver in the European Championships final in June, had confirmed that she would run in the relay final in the wake of her fourth place finish in the individual 400m showpiece, which occurred later on Friday and slotted into the team in place of McGrory.
Lining out in lane four between Belgium and the Netherlands, Becker ran the opening leg and had Ireland sixth on the straight (50.90) before passing the baton to Adeleke, who then surged into second place in a storming run, with a split 48.92.
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Healy (50.94) maintained second place for Ireland into the final bend and held her own on the straight, with Netherlands and Great Britain bearing down.
Mawdsley (49.14), celebrating her 26th birthday, ran the anchor leg and was third approaching the final bend but was agonisingly pipped to the bronze medal place on the line by Great Britain, who clocked a national record of 3:19.72
The United States took a dominant gold in a continental record of 3:15.27, with the Netherlands claiming silver in another national record of 3:19.50.
A high-calibre final also saw hosts France post a national best of 3:21.41 back in fifth.
Tears flowed in the team’s post-race interview with RTÉ Sport, with Mawdsley’s maelstrom of emotions particularly evident.
“If you told me a couple of days ago that we would come fourth, I would have been elated, but when you are out on that last leg, it does feel like it’s your fault,” she said. “I know I ran the best I could.
“When Amber Anning (Great Britain) came up on me, I’m aware Femke Bol (Netherlands) is behind me, and it’s a hard leg, but I’m pretty devastated.
“I just wish I could have done it for the girls and especially Rhasidat yesterday. It’s just heartbreaking.
“We still broke a national record and that was my aim in the meeting today, so I can’t ask for much more, I guess.”
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Adeleke said: “For us to be even out here in an Olympic final and to come fourth, we’re breaking so many barriers.
“We are doing so well, we’ve elevated every team and we’ve all helped each other get to this point. It’s onwards and upwards from here.
“We believed in each other, we trusted each other and we put our best performance on the track today and that’s all I can ask.
“I’m so proud of them and I’m so excited to see what the future holds for us as a team.”
Reflecting on the role of the enthusiastic Irish fans present, the 21-year-old added: “They embraced us, they were so proud of us.
“It just meant the world because, to us, it’s bittersweet. We feel like we really could have medalled, which we obviously have to the potential to. In the future, there’ll definitely be some medals there.
“But they reassured us how proud they were of us and I think that’s so important.
“As athletes, we are so hard on ourselves. I’m hard on myself, you can see the girls are hard on themselves so understanding how much the nation is proud of us and how much they back us, it means so much because it just shows us what we’ve just achieved.”
Healy said: “There are world-class athletes out there and we held our own to come fourth in an Olympics Games. It’s just madness, but it’s what this team is capable of, and I’m so proud of these girls.
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“There is a squad of four out here today, but we’ve athletes back in warm-up, and there are other athletes part of this squad in qualifying.
“We’ve great management, personal coaches, and the support in the stadium is unbelievable.”
Becker, who was also fuelled by the noisy fanbase when the gun sounded, said: “I heard the crowd and I just ran until I couldn’t run anymore, and I had to give the baton to Rhasidat.
“This morning we had a meeting, and we were all kind of a little bit scared to say that we wanted a medal because we knew we could get it but we didn’t want to jinx it.
“Someone has to be fourth, today it’s us. We know we deserve a medal and we’ll be back, that’s for sure.”
Watch the 2024 Olympic Games with 14 hours of televised action on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player each day. Listen to extensive radio coverage on RTÉ Radio 1 and 2fm’s Game On and follow each moment from Paris on RTÉ.ie, the RTÉ News app and all RTÉ digital platforms. Listen to the daily RTÉ Sport Olympics Podcast.