While Ireland's golden girl Rhasidat Adeleke breezed into the 400m Olympic semi-final, it wasn't to be for her Irish teammates Sharlene Mawdsley and Sophie Becker who missed out on qualification in this morning's repechage heats.
However, their personal disappointment could work to Ireland's benefit as they seek to win a relay medal in the 4x400m women's event.
Mawdsley and Becker were both in action in this morning's repechage, after missing out on automatic qualification in yesterday's heats, however, third place for Mawdsley and second for Becker, weren't enough to keep their solo Olympic journey alive.
Despite Becker running a career second-best time of 51.28 seconds, it wasn't enough to claim first place, with a 'proud' Becker describing it as 'bittersweet' after the race.
Only minutes earlier, Mawdlsey ran the faster time of the two in her repechage, clocking a 51.18 second 400m dash. However, that too was shy of what was needed, with Mawdlsey telling RTÉ that she just didn't have the required personal best in her legs today.
Sharlene Mawdsley was third in her 400m repechage heat in 51.18 seconds, which wasn't enough for a place in the semi-finals
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Heffernan: Mawdsley and Becker disappointments could be 'blessing in disguise'
Despite both Becker and Mawdsley bowing out of their 400m journey today, speaking on RTÉ Rob Heffernan went as far as saying he was "happy" the girls missed out on qualification, calling it a 'blessing in disguise'.
It could be a blessing in disguise because our relay is ranked third in the world. She wasn't going to get through the semi-final anyway, and it gives her an extra day of recovery to regroup, get that energy back up. We all know she can back them races, so she needs to bring that energy to the relay now.
The relay is a lot more important than these races. I'm happy they're not through. I say this in a positive way. It's only because I think they're so good. The women's relay - and my wife ran the relay in London (Marian) - I know how much it means to them. I know the effect that it has had
While today might seem disappointing, Heffernan certainly has a point here. With Sharlene Mawdsley appearing visibly tired in the closing 60 metres and the 400m Women's relay heats yet to come, today's result will mean at least one less race for the pair ahead of Friday morning's relay heats.
Heats where Team Ireland have a better chance of success than Mawdsley or Becker did individually, as they said in their respective post-race interviews, they'll now get the opportunity to head away and get themselves ready for the team event.
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