An outstanding sixth place in the mixed relay was the highlight of an excellent opening two days for Irish athletes at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
Ireland’s principal medal hopes Ciara Mageean and Rhasidat Adeleke also took giant steps forward in their quest for podium places later in the week.
It was the third global decider for the mixed relay squad after making the finals at both the Tokyo Olympics and last year’s World Championships in Oregon.
Ireland’s relay quartet had gone through to the final as one of the non-automatic qualifiers in 3:13.90.
That was largely thanks to a herculean effort by Sharlene Mawdsley on the final leg when she dragged the team up from a relatively distant seventh to fourth, and one of the two non-automatic qualifiers at the finish line.
The Tipperary athlete repeated that feat in the final when with a world class 50.02 timing for her leg in which she brought the Irish through from ninth to seventh – to be upgraded to sixth after Femke Bol from the Netherlands had fallen and let the baton slip from her grip just metres from the finish line.
That allowed the USA to take the gold medals and the world record with a 3:08.80 mark. Ireland’s time of 3:14.13 was slightly slower than that of the morning, but their sixth placing is their best to date on the world stage.
Incredibly, Mawdsley was back on the track on Sunday morning and even more incredibly, running a personal best 51.17 to advance to the semi-finals of the 400m to be held this evening.
Ireland’s other one-lap representative Adeleke looked in majestic form as she cruised to a comfortable victory in the fifth heat, recording a time of 50.80 seconds, ninth fastest of the day.
Chris O’Donnell, who had also run twice in the relay on Saturday, did not prove to be as resilient as Mawdsley with the Sligo man a detached seventh in his heat, recording a modest at this level 46.76 timing.
After months, even years, of planning the timing of events down to the second, the opening of the championships was delayed due to an electric storm.
That delay did not seem to affect Kate O’Connor who opened her campaign an hour late on Saturday morning in the heptathlon with a personal best clocking of 13.57 seconds in the 100m hurdles.
She followed up with a season’s best of 1.80m in the high jump to put her eighth overall. She slipped back to 10th after the shot put (13.57m) and dropped a further place despite a season’s best of 24.78 seconds in the 200m to leave her eleventh overnight.
The St Gerard’s Dundalk multieventer looked on course to break her own national record (6297) but a relatively poor long jump of 5.74m saw her slip further to 15th.
Good efforts in the javelin (46.07m) and 800m (2:14.06) helped her climb again to 13th at the conclusion with a final total of 6,145 points. Great Britain’s Katarina JohnsonThompson took gold with 6,740 points.
The women’s 1500m heats threw up mixed fortunes for Ireland’s three representatives.
Sarah Healy qualified impressively from the second heat after being well-placed and was never outside the six qualifying places throughout the race.
The 21-year-old crossed the finish line in third, recording 4:03.00, behind world record holder and favourite for the gold Faith Kipyegon of Kenya.
Sophie O’Sullivan was always struggling with the pace of the third heat and although fighting through to what looked like a qualifying spot in the final straight, fell back to eighth at the finish.
A huge personal best of 4:02.15 was some consolation for the Irish-Australian daughter of the famed Sonia O’Sullivan.
Mageean and Healy both made a return to action in yesterday evening’s semi-finals.
Mageean exuded a confidence in the first semi rarely seen in her before as she lurked with menace in the bunch for most of the race before moving through as cool as a cucumber to finish third in 4:02.70.
That ensured she will be lining up in the final on Tuesday evening when medals will be hard-earned, judging by the second semi-final.
Healy had the misfortune to get drawn in that race, which turned out to be the hottest ever women’s 1500m eliminator.
World record holder Faith Kipyegon led home nine women under four minutes with Healy, in eighth, going third on the Irish all-time list behind Mageean (3:56.63) and Sonia O’Sullivan (3:58.85) with a 3:59.68 timing.
With no morning session today, Irish interest is confined to this evening’s women’s 400m semi-finals.
It will be Sharlene Mawdsley’s fourth race at these championships, and we are only on day three.
For Rhasidat Adeleke, it will be her next step toward the final on Wednesday and hopefully a medal.
