When is fourth place in an Olympic final anything other than agonisingly close, but in finishing just outside the medals in the 4x400 metres relay inside the Stade de France on Saturday night, the Irish women’s quartet could hardly believe how close they had come.
It was palm-sweating close, so tantalisingly near, and not at all so far.
In the end, the quartet of Sophie Becker, Rhasidat Adeleke, Phil Healy and Sharlene Mawdsley finished fourth in 3:19.90, taking just under three seconds off the Irish record, still leaving them just short of stepping on to the Olympic medal podium, Britain winning the bronze medal in advance of them in 3:19.72, also a national record.
The USA team were the clear winners of the gold medal in 3:15.27, also a national record and helped in no small part by the sensational 47.71 second split by Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone on the second leg, who on Thursday night here in Paris also won the 400m hurdles in a world record of 50.37 seconds.
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But the battle for silver and bronze was so, so close, the Dutch winning silver in 3:19.50, Femke Bol bringing them home with an anchor leg split of 48.62, just in advance of Mawdsley, who closed in 49.14. It was exactly that agonisingly close, very fine margins making the difference.
It was Adeleke, running in the second leg just 24 hours after also finishing fourth in the individual 400m on Friday night, who took Ireland right into that medal contention, brilliantly moving them into second with her split of 48.92 seconds on a leg where Jamaica dropped the baton as Andrenette Knight accidentally bumped into Adeleke.
Healy did her level best to hold on to second, running 50.94 on her third leg, and held her position, and despite another blazing effort by Mawdsley on the anchor leg, she could not quite close the gap on Great Britain and the Dutch.
“Honestly, I feel mixed emotions,” said Adeleke. “I’m really, really proud of the team for us to even be in an Olympic final and to come fourth. I think fourth place is obviously the worst place to come. It’s just so close to a medal but if you had told us that we’d be coming fourth at the Olympic Games last year, we’d be so delighted.
“But it’s because we’re here now, and we’re such competitors. And we know we have so much to give, but that was an amazing performance. I’m so proud of them. So, proud of us even being here at this point. And I think we’re really going to be a threat in years to come.”
For Healy, who ran 50.94 on the third leg, that feeling was entirely mutual: “Yeah, look, it’s a phenomenal performance for the team. We shattered the national record coming with a 3:19, fourth in an Olympic Games. So proud of the girls. This team belongs at the world stage, we’ve now come fourth at the Olympic Games. Who predicted that we’d come fourth before here?
“Look the media throughout the week, it was like, ‘oh, it’s going to be a tough ask to qualify’. We’ve a super squad for this relay team. It’s constantly changing. There’s Grace back in warm up, just so proud of the girls. To shatter that Irish record, it shows that we did perform, out of our skin.”
For Mawdsley, who also celebrated her 26th birthday here in Saturday night, the narrow loss of a bronze medal was understandably difficult to put into words.
“Honestly I don’t have much words, it hurts so much,” she said. “If we had come sixth, it would have probably been less hard,” she said. “but we wanted that medal so bad and I feel that I fell short because you run the last leg, and there’s been so many days when I’ve been placed for my last leg but today it just didn’t go my way and that’s how the game goes.
“I’m sure I ran fast but it just wasn’t enough so yeah, it’s heartbreaking, but again if you had told us last year that we would come fourth at the Olympics, I wouldn’t have believed anyone. So yeah, it’s rough, but that’s how sport goes.”
Becker, who ran the opening leg in 50.90, also said: “Yeah, we’re absolutely devastated. I think in a few days’ time it’s not going to hurt as much, we’re world class, like. We knew if we ran a national record we’d be in the mix, 3.19, I don’t think any of us believed we would run 3.19, that’s just absolutely phenomenal.
“I’m so proud of us, we literally left it all on the track. I don’t think 3.19 was ever on the cards for us and now that we’ve run it, why can’t we go faster?”
For Healy, who also made the final of the mixed relay in Tokyo three years ago, it was indeed bittersweet.
“Absolutely, we have come that close to a medal. Everyone wants a medal. We got silver at Europeans, we know what we are capable of.
“But I think we just come that close to the medal, it hurts that little bit more. It is an Olympic Games and everyone wants an Olympic medal. Obviously getting to a final was a dream, and then we got there and wanted to go one step further.
“Just a special mention for all the travelling Irish supporters, across all the sports, we saw it all week, they’re here supporting every single sport and it just feels so, so special for us and it definitely lifts us.”
On the motivation of her fourth place in the individual 400m on Friday night, Adeleke added: “I’m just as hungry as ever and I think there is just always more to do and I’m just going to get down to the nitty-gritty things that I need to improve my performances. I’m just really grateful to be able to move on and really grateful to my team and everyone who’s supported me and the girls here ...
“I’m really grateful to be healthy and to be able to move on. I’m really grateful to my team and everyone who supported me. The girls here, I just think there is so much more in the future we’ll be able to get to the point we always dreamed of.”
