Ireland’s mixed 4x400m squad of Cillin Greene, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley smashed the national record for the second time in two days to win a magnificent bronze medal at the World Athletics Relay Championships in the Bahamas.
The USA took gold from the Netherlands, who needed track superstar Femke Bol to hold off Mawdsley by only eight-hundredths of a second in the battle for silver.
Ireland’s time of 3:11.53 took almost a second off the Irish record the same quartet had set on Saturday when they won their heat and qualified for the Olympics.
Adeleke ran a sensational second leg of 48.45 seconds to add to her burgeoning reputation.
Now the Irish squad can look ahead to Paris with confidence that they reproduce a similar result.
Greene had given Ireland a solid start, handing the baton to Adeleke in fourth place.
The 21-year-old ran an astonishing leg as she left Dutch world and European relay champion Lieke Klaver in her wake, bringing Ireland back on level terms with the United States.
Although only a relay split, a time of 48.45secs would have been good enough to win the Olympic silver medal in Tokyo and on this form Adeleke must be considered a medal chance at both next month’s European Championships in Rome and then the Olympics in Paris.
Barr held his own on the third leg although the USA opened the gap further, but Mawdsley took the baton just ahead of Bol with Nigeria in the mix for the medals as well.
There would be no catching Kendall Ellis of the USA, but Mawdsley was not prepared to be intimidated by Bol, the world 400m hurdles and 4x400m champion.
She pushed Bol all the way to the line with the Dutch athlete just edging out Mawdsley for second place.
Seventh place for Irish women’s 4x400m squad
With only half an hour between the final of the mixed relay and the women’s 4x400m it meant Adeleke and Mawdsley were unable to double up as they had done on Saturday to help both squads qualify for the Olympics.
Roisin Harrison and Lauren Cadden were drafted in to join Phil Healy and Sophie Becker.
Despite a good first leg from Healy, Ireland soon dropped out of contention and eventually finished seventh with Becker holding of France on the line.
Ireland had set a new national record of 3:24.38 in the heats with Adeleke and Mawdsley. Had they been able to repeat that, they would have finished second, so when it comes to the European Championships and Olympics they know they can contend.
