Ireland women relay team impress to qualify for Worlds

The Ireland women's 4x400m relay team have joined the 4x400m mixed relay quartet in qualifying for the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo later this year.

Having missed out on the final in Saturday's qualifiers at the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China, Ireland took full advantage of the back-door route by romping to victory in their repechage on Sunday.

In a changed team from Saturday’s race, Sophie Becker took the lead leg and, racing from lane seven, ran a strong 400m, passing to Rhasidat Adeleke, more or less leading the field.

The Olympic fourth-placed Adeleke took on the challenge and kept the baton ahead of Australia, who showed great pace to match the strong Irish showing.

Rachel McCann was third to race and managed to maintain the lead through to the 350-metre mark before Australia just nudged ahead coming to the final exchange.

Sharlene Mawdsley then sat in for the opening 200m of the final leg as she looked to time her attack, and the Tipperary woman did it in style, winning it with a good 15 metres to spare at the line in three minutes 24.69 seconds.

"I'm so relieved, I think I speak for all of us when I say that," Becker said after the race.

"It was a great box to tick getting the mixed qualified yesterday, and now to come out here and get the second team qualified for Tokyo is such a relief. Were all really excited to see what the summer brings now".

Adeleke added: "We've solidified ourselves as one of the best relays in the world and we’re just continuing that on. We’ll get more opportunities to compete and I’m really excited to see what we can do at the World Championships now that we’re qualified."

Meanwhile, without Adeleke and Mawdsley, the 4x400m mixed team made up of Raftery, Phil Healy, Aaron Keane, and Lauren Cadden finished eighth in their final on Sunday in 3:19.64, safe in the knowledge that qualification for the Worlds had already been secured.

The men's 4x400m contingent failed to make it a trio of qualified teams for Tokyo as they finished in seventh place in their heat on Sunday.

Racing on the inside from lane two, Conor Kelly ran the opening leg before passing to Cillín Greene with the team well outside the automatic top three qualifying places.

The remaining duo of Chris O’Donnell and Jack Raftery failed to make up the required ground and their challenge faded over the final lap as they finished well outside the Worlds qualification placings in 3:04.42.

Watch the World Athletics Relays live on Eurovision Sport.