Together and as one they again sought to go where no Irish women’s relay team had gone before, only this one just a small step too far and one race too many perhaps.
Getting an Irish 4x400m team straight into the European Championship final, running a new Irish record to boot, was always going to be a hard act to follow, and so it proved as the quartet of Sophie Becker, Phil Healy, Rhasidat Adeleke and Sharlene Mawdsley finished sixth of the eight teams, this time running 3:26.63, just shy of that Irish record clocked on Friday morning.
It was a back-and-forth affair too, Becker handing over to Healy in fifth, already some 10 metres down on the leading four; Healy then dropped to seventh just before the end of her leg and passing off to Adeleke, this being her 51st race of the season, who put in another strong leg to put them back into fifth, just not as fired up as Friday.
Mawdsley was handed the hard task of closing ground on the anchor leg, only to be passed close to the line by the German Carolina Krafzik, as they took fifth in 3:26.09. Then came Ireland a close sixth in 3:26.63, another fine effort nonetheless, especially given the fact they didn’t get the benefit of bringing in fresh legs from the heats on Friday as the leading teams did.
Up front a classic race was unfolding between medal favourites the Dutch, Britain and Poland, the Dutch team bringing in Femke Bol for their anchor leg, the individual winner on the 400m flat and 400m hurdles already.
And Bol duly delivered, moving from third to first into the straight to claim her third gold medal, their winning time some six seconds faster than Ireland in 3:20.87, with Poland coming through to take silver in 3:21.60, Britain holding on for third in 3:21.74.
Saturday night’s penultimate session of these championships also saw Louise Shanahan run another gritty and determined race in the women’s 800 metres final, putting herself in contention in the middle of the eight-woman field as they rounded the fast first lap in 58.38 seconds – though possibly a little too fast for her.
Things didn’t slow either and Shanahan faded from fifth to eighth down the backstretch, chasing on through to the end, although that’s where she finished, still clocking 2:01.64, one of the best times of her life.
After three successive silver medals – in Olympic, World and Commonwealth Games finals – Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson finally got the gold medal she craved, the 20-year-old pulling well clear down the homestretch to take the victory in 1:59.04. Renelle Lamote from France also finished strong to take second in 1:59.49, Anna Wielgosz from Poland coming through on the line to snatch third in 1:59.87.
Shanahan has broken that two-minute barrier only once, and had also produced an excellent first round and semi-final run over successive days, which clearly took some toll on the 25-year-old. Still the Leevale runner was justifiably upbeat about her Munich experience, making the final surpassing most people’s expectations in the first place.
“I’ve never raced three days in a row before, it’s a pretty aggressive women’s 800m programme this time,” she said. “Unfortunately I didn’t really have the strength from 400m to 600m, but I wanted to put myself in a position where I was competing for a medal. Maybe if I’d played it a bit safer I might have been closer in the end, picking off a few runners, but I didn’t come here to play if safe, I came here to try win a medal.
“My race plan didn’t go as happy as I hoped, but I’ve just ran in a senior European final, I’ll take eighth in Europe, and hopefully next time I can challenge for a medal.”
Shanahan, currently a PhD student in quantum physics at Cambridge, had qualified eighth fastest overall, still one of many Irish athletes who took a major step forward in Munich, the challenge now being to go further again.
Sarah Lavin got a bye from the heats of the women’s 100m hurdles as one of the top-12 ranked athletes based on season’s best and advanced straight to Sunday’s three semi-finals (6.18pm Irish time), where only the top two, and two fastest losers, progress to the final later in the night
So it’s still the one medal for the Irish athletics team at the European Championships in Munich, after Ciara Mageean’s brilliant silver medal won in that epic 1,500m showdown with Laura Muir on Friday night.
There is already one guaranteed Irish final to come, Mark English securing his place in the 800 final on Sunday, taking third in his semi-final in 1:46.66 behind Jake Wightman, Britain’s recently crowned World 1,500m champion moving down a distance, the win there going to Mariano Garcia from Spain.
English, the bronze medal winner from 2014, came to Munich very much intent on making Sunday’s final: “I just wanted to be in contention,” he said. “There was a lot of surging in the race. So I’m just happy to get through, to be honest.”
That final is set for Sunday’s closing session (6.40pm Irish time).
