Eight years after finishing just .05 of a second off the bronze medal in the 400m hurdles in Rio, Thomas Barr is headed to his third Olympics, confirmed as part of the mixed 4x400m relay team that will compete in the Stade de France in Paris next month.
Barr is among the six additional athletes named on Thursday that complete the relay selections for Paris, part of the mixed 4x400m along with Chris O’Donnell, while Phil Healy, Lauren Cadden, Kelly McGrory and Rachel McCann are named for both the mixed and the women’s 4x400m.
It brings to 23 the number of Irish athletes now headed to Paris, two less than competed in the delayed Tokyo. Of those, 10 qualified with automatic Olympic standards, another seven making it as part of their event ranking quota; for Healy and O’Donnell it will also be their second Olympics, both part of the mixed relay which made the Tokyo final.
For Barr, who last month fell just short of automatically qualifying for his third Olympics in the 400m hurdles, his time of 48.79 seconds just outside the Paris standard of 48.70, the selection was based in part on the key role he played in the gold medal performance at the European Championships in Rome last month, running the third leg.
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Barr turns 32 two days before the Olympics begin and was also part of the mixed relay team that won bronze at the World Relays in the Bahamas in May. He also just missed the athlete quota in the 400m hurdles by one place.
Rhasidat Adeleke, Sharlene Mawdsley and Sophie Becker, who have all qualified in the individual 400m, have also been named in both relay squads, although it’s still unclear what role they will play in the mixed event, given the heats take place on the opening day of the track schedule, Friday August 2nd, with the final on the Saturday night. The individual 400m heats then take place on the Monday.
For Cadden, (Sligo AC) McGrory (Tír Chonaill AC) Rachel McCann (North Down AC), it’s their first Olympic selection, Cadden running the heats of the women’s 4x400m relay in Rome, that team going on to win silver in the final.
Three more Irish athletes have been named as relay reserves; Jack Raftery is the travelling reserve in the mixed relay, with Clíodhna Manning and Roisin Harrison the non-travelling reserves for both relay teams. Cillin Greene also misses out, the Galway athlete who was part of the mixed relay in Tokyo, and also ran the opening leg at the World Relays in the Bahamas,
Adeleke meanwhile will continue her Paris countdown when she runs the 400m at the Monaco Diamond League meeting on Friday night, her first individual 400m since winning silver at the European Championships, where she improved her own Irish record to 49.07 seconds.
On Sunday, World Athletics confirmed the final athlete quota for Paris, Becker and Jodie McCann making the cut in the 400m and 5,000m respectively, with McCann joining her brother Luke, set for the men’s 1,500m. These quota qualifications make up the final Paris event numbers on top of those with the automatic qualifying marks (with a maximum of three entries per event for each country).
For the 1,500m in Paris, there are 45 entry spots, with McCann and Cathal Doyle joining automatic qualifier Andrew Coscoran. Kate O’Connor had also met the highly competitive qualification in the women’s heptathlon, ranked 23rd of 24, as did 20-year-old Nicola Tuthill in the women’s hammer, ranked 31st of the 32-athlete quota in that event. Eric Favors will also be competing in his first Olympics in the shot, qualifying in 30th of the 32-athlete quota in that event.
The 10 Irish athletes with the automatic qualifying marks for Paris were Adeleke (400m), Mawdsley (400m) Ciara Mageean (1,500m), Sarah Healy and Sophie O’Sullivan (both 1,500m), Sarah Lavin (100m hurdles), Fionnuala McCormack (marathon), Coscoran (1,500m), Brian Fay (5,000m), and Mark English (800m).
Team Ireland track and field athletes for the Paris Olympics
Rhasidat Adeleke –400m, Mx4x400m, W4x400m
Sharlene Mawdsley – 400m, Mx4x400m, W4x400m
Mark English – 800m
Sarah Healy – 1,500m
Ciara Mageean –1,500m
Sophie O’Sullivan – 1,500m
Andrew Coscoran – 1,500m
Brian Fay – 5,000m
Fionnuala McCormack – marathon
Sarah Lavin – 100m hurdles
Cathal Doyle – 1,500m
Luke McCann 1,500m
Jodie McCann – 5,000m
Nicola Tuthill – hammer
Kate O’Connor – Heptathlon
Eric Favors – shot
Sophie Becker – 400m, Mx4x400m, W4x400m
Lauren Cadden – Mx 4x400m, W4x4000
Thomas Barr – Mx 4X400M
Phil Healy – Mx 4x400m, W4x400m
Rachel McCann – Mx 4x400m, W4x400m
Kelly McGrory – Mx 4x400m, W4x400m
Chris O’Donnell – Mx4x400m
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