They lost nothing. At the beginning of the season, nobody expected Ireland to qualify for the 4x400m mixed relay at the Olympics, and the thought of reaching the final was an outlandish fantasy. They defied everyone’s scepticism. By the end of the week, their eighth place finish in yesterday’s final could easily be the outstanding Irish performance on the track.
They could not reproduce the speed that got them through their semi-final on Friday, but there was no shame in that. Most of the other teams were able to introduce fresh legs for the final; Ireland’s best four, was the same four. Lane one was a poor draw, and with nine teams in the final, after a couple of disqualifications were thrown out on appeal earlier in the day, there was bound to be some turbulence at the handovers.
Germany were the main culprits, and they were ultimately disqualified, but not before they interfered with the handover between Phil Healy and Sophie Becker. At one stage in Healy’s leg Ireland had moved up to sixth place, but they simply could not keep that up.
“It’s an incredible experience to be out there,” Cillin Greene said. “No one gave us a shot at making a final, so to step up on the biggest stage is an astronomical experience for all of us. I think everyone ran their heart out. We’re one of the few teams that had to run yesterday and today, and a lot of teams brought in fresh legs, which definitely showed out on the track. But we left it all out there.”
Earlier on Saturday, there was disappointment for Irish athletes in the stadium. Mark English could only finish fourth in his heat of the 800m, having been bustled out of a prominent position early in the race. At his first Olympics in Rio five years ago English reached the semi-final, but he needed to be in the first three in his heat to ensure his progress, and the way the race panned out he was never likely to go through as one of the six fastest losers.
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“I’m gutted. Like, I was ready for that race,” he said. “I just got out-kicked. There’s nothing else to say. I know I had the quality to make it, but that’s always the case with an 800m runner — it’s a different thing doing it. Lots of guys have the potential. I just didn’t have it today unfortunately.
“The plan was to stay in contention without wasting too much energy. I felt like I got to the front at 200m, and then they all just closed in and got in front of me. At that point I didn’t feel like it was worth wasting energy to move out, but I might regret that. It’s tough to take to be honest.”
Sarah Lavin was devastated too, trailing in seventh in her heat of the 100m hurdles. For the fifth time in a row this season she posted a sub 13.20sec time, but she would have needed to equal her season’s best of 12.95 to get through as one of the four automatic qualifiers. Lavin did not meet the first hurdle on a good stride, and her rhythm was thrown after that.
“The one thing I pride myself on is bringing my best on the biggest day — not to do that is gutting,” she said. “I think a final is beyond my reach — but I do think a semi-final is within it, if I had done 12.95 I’d have been through. It’s my second fastest time ever [13.16 yesterday], but it’s disappointing.”