CONCENTRATING NOT ON the Jamaican to her outside, or the Dutch on her inside, Sophie Becker had eyes only for the purple rubber of the Stade de France track and her 4x400m teammate Phil Healy.
She stunned off the blocks this morning, storming through her first 300 metres to emerge from the last bend of the relay first leg in pole position.
She was running blind, not knowing if Jamaica were ‘having a really good run or a really bad one’, and it suited her.
Becker’s 50.88 split – the second fastest opening leg from the two stacked heats – gave the baton to Cork’s Healy before any of Ireland’s competitors released their cylinders.
We were breathing rare air in Saint-Denis.
If the ever-dependable Healy and Olympic debutante Kelly McGrory could put in strong shifts having been handed the lead, Sharlene Mawdsley would be in a position to take the team home in the top three – an all-important automatic qualification spot.
Healy, a 200m specialist, had the imposing Lieke Klaver in her leg but kept an astonishing distance between them through the stagger unwinding and beyond. She would have only felt the Dutch woman’s breath on her neck in the final 50m, at which point her job was complete.
McGrory then had the luxury of being on the extreme inside for the baton handover. Ireland were still in first place.
“I knew even at 300m where Sophie was, she was miles ahead of everyone else. So I knew I had to use that 200m speed; I’d say I ran a 200m PB out there in the first half,” Healy told David Gillick after the heat.
There was a lot of running still to do but this Ireland team were in the midst of a moment.
McGrory, who had waited until the third-last day of the Games to be able to call herself an Olympian, took over the baton to repeat Healy’s feats.
“I knew I had to work hard at the start, like we got the baton changed over at just about the same time as the Dutch,” she recalls after the race. “I just wanted to be in front and especially at the 200 mark when we’re getting lined up for Sharlene.”
In fact, McGrory stretched Ireland’s lead out over the first bend and back straight, elongating the distance between her and Myrte van der Schoot of the Netherlands.
It was only as the final bend was navigated and pressure came on from Jamaica’s Charokee Young that McGrory’s placing started to slip.
Tying up, she was overtaken by the Dutch and Canadian runners but her championship legs fended off the challenge from the Italians.
Mawdsley, now known across Ireland as an anchor leg magician, received the baton in fourth position in the inside lane.
Nail-biting stuff for the green jerseys in the stand, the best fuel for the Tipperary woman.
“I trust myself so much in that last 100 metres in a relay and I just charged for home.”
A tactical race, she said that while she always looks in control, making the decision about when ‘to go’ is a constant question mark.
This morning, Kyra Constantine from Canada was her barometer. Hugging the inside of the track, form perfect, she was – she says – uncharacteristically patient. The brave move was to wait. It wasn’t until the final bend of the final leg was behind her that she moved to the outside of Constantine, telling her in two quick strides that she was just toying with her all along.
The Jamaicans were clear but the 26-year-old made sure the Dutch, in second, would fear them ahead of tomorrow evening’s final, even if she didn’t catch Lisanne de Witt before the line today.
Her 49.74 split was the second fastest of the morning, beaten only by Shamier Little’s second leg 49.22 for the Americans in heat one.
“I do think we could have come probably first or second to be honest, you know, but we have a little bit in our legs for tomorrow,” she tells The 42 and other journalists in the back rooms of Stade de France as they make their way back to the village, excitement across the quartet still palpable.
“I’m so proud of that performance. We wanted to come top three and that’s exactly what we did.”
There had been some chatter across athletics commentators that Mawdsley and Becker should have sat out their repechages in the individual 400m to give this team a better chance at qualification for the final.
“I think honestly, the repechage kind of helped,” Becker says – before even being asked, a hint of some likely, extra motivation for that 50.88. “I felt really good after my race a few days ago and I was like, ‘I’m just dying to go again.’ So yeah, it speaks for itself.”
But was it nice to prove the point?
“I don’t think we need to say anymore – like we both have their races of our lives. So yeah, repechage was a good idea.”
Later, Healy picks up the narrative baton.
“This is their fourth run. Obviously they had a tough campaign doing the mixed, two rounds of the repechage but as Sophie says, how can you deny anybody of their individual event? It’s so so hard to qualify for an individual event in an Olympic Games so the girls did everyone proud – themselves and everyone back home, so it’s a credit to them and then to come out again with us on the relay with not so fresh legs.”
Tonight, they return to the village to recover and recharge – and await the final of their teammate Rhasidat Adeleke.
“It’ll probably be a waiting game to see what happens there but we’re all guns blazing, and we’re ready to go all ready for tomorrow,” Mawdsley says. The ideal play would be for Adeleke to be able to return to the track tomorrow with a trio of her, Becker and Healy.
But selection isn’t on their minds right now. “I think if you put us back out right now we’d probably run faster because we’re all so happy. The support we have back home, the support we have in this stadium – like how could we not come away Olympic finalists? It was amazing.”
Ireland’s 4x400m women’s relay team is awaiting the result of the final of the 400m women’s individual event to see who will line up in an Olympic final tomorrow.
Two sprint finals in two days at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Rare air, rare times, indeed.
Written by Sinead O’Carroll and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.
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