The Ireland women’s 4x400m relay team ran strongly to claim an automatic place in Saturday night’s final at the Olympic Games.
Without Rhasidat Adeleke, because of her individual 400m final on Friday, the quartet were led off by Sophie Becker who handed to Phil Healy with a healthy lead.
Healy held on well and gave the baton to Kelly McGrory who kept the lead until the final 100m but still got the baton to Sharlene Mawdsley in a good position.
Mawdsley, who has turned herself into a superb final leg runner, bided her time before passing Canada in the home straight to finish third behind Jamaica and the Netherlands.
Adeleke is expected to come in for the final.
Mark English missed out on the men’s 800m final after finishing sixth in a tough semi-final that included the event favourite Djamel Sedjati from Algeria.
English took the race on with 200m to go but hadn’t the speed or strength to claim one of the top two places needed to qualify as he faded in the closing stages posting a time of 1:45.97.
Sarah Lavin bowed out of the women’s 100m hurdles at the semi-final stage.
The Irish record holder ran 12.69 to finish in sixth place.