Stunning last leg from Mawdsley secures World relay spot

The Irish women's 4x400m relay team of Rachel McCann, Sophie Becker, Arlene Crossan and Sharlene Mawdsley have secured a place at next year's World Championships after winning the repechage race at the World Athletics Relays in Botswana.

The quartet clocked a season's best time of 3:23.83, with Mawdsley posting an impressive split, the fastest ever by an Irish athlete, of 48.34 as she came from third to first on the final leg, so punching their ticket to Beijing next year.

The other split times were: McCann (52.35), Becker (51.84) and Crossan (51.30).

France came home second to also book their spot at the Worlds.

Speaking afterwards to Athletics Ireland, Mawdsley referenced the team's desire to go out and prove a point, when saying: "Let's give ourselves a performance to be proud of and we did that.

"I'm absolutely thrilled, when Arlene gave me the baton in third, I said 'you better stay in third' because I like to chase and I knew if I got it in third close by the Jamaican, I thought we'd come second but we won."

There was disappointment for the 4x400m mixed team of Jack Raftery, Jenna Breen, Sean Doggett and Erin Friel as they finished seventh in their heat, in a time of 3:19.34, with South Africa winning in 3:12.77.

The the Irish women's 4x100m team of Precious Akpe-Moses, Ciara Neville, Mollie O'Reilly and Sarah Leahy also failed to make the all-important top-two berth in their repechage, clocking 44.25 in a race won by Australia in 42.88.