The Ireland women's 4x400 team came agonisingly close to a medal at the Stade de France, finishing fourth by just two tenths of a second against the best teams in the world tonight.
Ireland smashed the national record they broke in Rome seven weeks ago. On that night Ireland claimed silver, the same four runners amazingly ran three seconds faster. Sharlene Mawdsley had Ireland in medal contention in the final 100 metres of the race but sadly Femke Bol of the Netherlands and Amber Anning of the UK - two of the best 400m runners in the world - simply had just too much.
There were huge emotions when the Ireland relay team spoke to David Gillick after their race.
Sharlene Mawdsley was particularly upset as she offered to take the blame for not getting Ireland over the line. Speaking through tears, Mawdsley - who turned 26 today - called the whole thing 'heartbreaking'.
If you'd have told me only a couple of days ago that we'd have finished fourth, I'd have only have been elated but when you're out on that last leg, it does feel like it's your fault. I know I ran the best I could and when Amber Anning came up on me, and I'm aware Femke is behind me. It's a hard leg, I'm pretty devastated. I just wish I could have done it for the girls, especially Rhasidat yesterday. It's just heartbreaking. But a national record was my aim in the meeting today. I can't ask for much more I guess.
Even when I got the baton. I knew I was in such a good position. I'm just devastated. You know, I did my best to see what I could do. And the girls put me in such an amazing position. I'm obviously devastated that I couldn't hold on and get us that medal. But you never know in the future. The future of Irish sprinting is so bright.
So much emotion and so much pride.
So much to take in from this interview with Ireland's fourth place 4x400 relay team. pic.twitter.com/Uk1hSRRWQg— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) August 10, 2024
The truth is Mawdsley ran one of the fastest races of her life. As Derval O'Rourke said on RTÉ afterwards, she wasn't selected to run in the Tokyo Olympics because she wasn't fast enough. With her running for Ireland tonight, and all summer, she proved her strength and character.
"She'll go back and look at it and realise. She's gone above and beyond. It just shows the kind of leader she is. She's had a fascinating three years. She's gone from not making it into the Tokyo team from standing there crying because she couldn't deliver them an Olympic medal. Outrageous growth as a person. Such an insight into who she is as a person."
Who's knows what's next for this relay but from their bronze at the World Relay Championships to their silver at the Europeans to their fourth place here tonight, they've certainly put relay running on the map in Ireland, and Mawdsley, in that anchor role, has played an integral part of it
