Sophie Becker steered the Irish women’s 4x400m relay team to the Olympic final on glorious morning in Paris.
The Irish quartet of Sophie Becker, Phil Healy, Kelly McGrory and Sharlene Mawdsley clocked a time of 3:25.05 to finish third.
Jamaica (3:24.92 SB) took victory with Netherlands (3:25.03) sealing one of the automatic qualification spots on offer.
Becker clocked her fastest ever relay split 50.90 seconds to get the team off to the perfect start. Bandon’s Phil Healy who maintained Ireland’s place throughout a gutsy leg. Becker’s split was the fastest of all the opening legs by half a second.
Kelly McGrory was next up, the Donegal woman delivered an impressive Olympic debut handing over to Mawdsley in fourth place.
Mawdsley produced her familiar last leg (49.65 seconds) to ensure the team secured qualification and a place in history as the first Irish women’s relay team to ever make an Olympic final.
“I’m absolutely delighted” declared Becker afterwards. “It was kind of hard running a bit blind, I didn’t know if Jamaica were having a really good or bad run so I just tried to stay up with her”.
“I’m delighted with it. Honestly the repechage really helped with it, I felt really good after my race a few days ago and I was just dying to go again. That result speaks for itself; repechage was a good idea!”
