European Championships gold medallists Ireland failed to qualify for the 4x400m mixed relay final at the Olympic Games as the absence of individual medal hope Rhasidat Adeleke proved too much of a handicap.
Like the majority of athletes targeting medals in the individual 400m events, Adeleke, 21, opted to miss the mixed relay in order to conserve energy and fitness.
Sophie Becker, who will also race in the individual 400m, was her replacement but the Irish quartet struggled as they clocked a time of 3:12.67 to finish fifth.
That wasn’t enough to clinch one of the two one of the non-automatic qualifier spots.
The Irish quartet’s time was nearly three seconds slower than their European Championship winning mark of 3:09.92 as Great Britain won the semi-final in 3:10.61.
Becker, who ran leg two, was joined in the quartet by Chris O’Donnell, Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley, who competed alongside Adeleke in the European Championships final in Rome.
European Championships bronze and silver medallists the Netherlands (3:10.81) and Italy (3:11.59) clinched the other two automatic qualifying spots alongside Great Britain.
In the opening semi-final, the USA quartet set a new world record of 3:07.41 to mark themselves out as strong favourites to clinch the gold medal on Saturday evening.
France (3:10.60) and Belgium (3:10.60) were the other automatic qualifiers from heat one which also produced the two non-automatic qualifiers in Jamaica (3:11.06) and Poland (3:11.43).
On her Olympic debut, Ireland’s Jodie McCann finished 20th in her 5,000m semi-final in 15:55.08 with only the top eight securing qualification as she was over 34 seconds slower than her personal best.