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IRELAND HAS QUALIFIED for the women’s 4x400m final after a fantastic performance in Paris this morning.
A storming final leg from Sharlene Mawdsley saw the team claim an automatic qualification place in the final behind Jamacia and the Netherlands with a time of 3:25.05.
Sophie Becker opened the relay for Ireland with an impressive 50.90-second leg, passing the baton to Phil Healy and then Kelly McGrory who both ran the 400m in around 52-seconds.
Mawdsley finished the job for Ireland with a blistering 49.65-second final leg that saw the team book a place in the final.
The final will take place tomorrow 10 August at 8:14pm and the team will be hoping for a similar performance that could put them in contention for a medal.
Speaking to RTÉ after the race, Sophie Becker said “we’re in the final, it’s an amazing feeling. We said we were going to do it. We did it, I’m so proud of us”.
Kelly McGrory, competing in her first Olympics, added that she knew she had to be brave “to get out in front and not get caught up in any mess” to give the team the best chance of progressing.
Mawdsley said the team is “buzzing” to have qualified for the final in an automatic position, saying she trusted her final 100m to make the move into third.
Phil Healy also praised the Irish fans at the stadium in Paris calling the support they have received “absolutely unbelievable” and saying “this is the closest we get a home Games, and it really does feel like we are at home”.
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Sharlene mawdsley must be among the most enjoyable athletes to watch. Always has a smile on her face and seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself. Even when she loses, she’s got such a positive attitude. Super run by the ladies again today.
@James Groden: Same with Rhasidat. Such a happy wee young wan. Always laughing, giggling and smiling….even when she *used to* not win.
God though, she has a savage laugh!
A true geniune from-the-belly big laugh.
Yes, yes, I am a big giant Rhasidat stan.
But mostly an all Team Ireland stan!! :D
That was great stuff. Ran out of their skin. Well done . Final will be very competitive and hard to predict with the different subs. Looking forward to it.
Good for them! Well done, team Ireland
The girls done really well. In a tough heat. Rhasidat Adeleke will almost certainly come back in for the final and gives them a chance of a medal
@Diarmuid: Not fair if one has to drop out to accommodate her.
@Billy Joe: fair? It’s the olympics. Winning is what matters.
@Billy Joe: That’s the kind of amateur thinking that had Ireland as also-rans for years…
@Diarmuid: I do not think it is allowed.
@Sean Griffin: Ah he’s kinda right though ..
@Billy Joe: it’s fair. I mean it happened at the Europeans too. With lauran cadden dropping out for rhasidat. Lauren still got a medal for that championship and deservedly so. Had she not been subbed out for rhasidat then it was likely none of them would have got medals. And I don’t mean disrespect to Lauren , a fantastic young athlete. But you have to be realistic, will likely be the same for mcgroary here. And I’m sure both Lauren and Kelly understand that. There’s no shame in that. At championships the team is more than just 4 runners. Same in all team sports. You could play a semi in football and not play the final. Still your medal if you win.
@Sean Money:
And if it’s allowed….it shouldn’t be.
These 4 girls got into the final without her, now go on and do your best..
@Geraldine O’Riordan: They are chosen from a squad according to circumstances, as in football, for example. The overriding objective is to win a competition for Ireland.
@Brendan O’Brien: yep, it completely makes sense and probably half the teams will have changes. The athletes themselves know this and don’t complain about it. Had Sharlene and Sophie qualified for tonight. Neither of them would if ran this morning. It’s the way it works and naive for people to think other wise imo.
@Sean Parker: also people need to remember to be in the final they actually had to qualify for the Olympics first too. Which wasn’t done with this specific quartet that run this morning also. It’s a team effort from the very start to finish.
@Sean Money: It is allowed.
@Diarmuid: shouldn’t be allowed after she abandoned them in the mixed relay
@mickey mac: the mixed relay isn’t even half a decade old. She would of been mad to run it with a realistic chance of an individual medal. I highly doubt she would have been running in that final either had they of made it. Have any of the sensitive people to this issue actually thought what the athletes involved think about it. By implying that adeleke will steal the thunder of another runner potentially subbed. You are inadvertently taking away from the subbed athlete if the team does do on to medal as if it would not be their achievement too. Which it is.
Are people forgetting the concept of team sports here or what ?
@Billy Joe: you pick your best team
@Sean Money: it is
@Geraldine O’Riordan: why shouldn’t it be allowed. They are a team of 6. USA and Jamaica do it every championship. Every team in every sport will rotate athletes and you play the best in the final.
@mickey mac:
She didn’t abandon them as the race was too near her race at the time.
It’s different now as her 400-meter final is tonight with the relay on Sunday. She will get 2 days to recover.
@Annette: relay is Saturday night but yeah you’re right.
@Alan OConnor: And what about the athletes who win in the heats and end up been consistently dropped for the final. It may be a ‘squad’ sport but that is only there to allow for clashes in different events.
@BarryH: you could argue they were only in the heats due to a clash in the first place, like today rhasidat is running tonight. If rhasidat went out already in the individual she would have likely ran this morning. I really don’t get the confusion, there is rotation and tapering in all squad sports. Football is the easiest to compare, a footballer is played in a game to rest another for a more important game. But in the end it’s a team achievement.
@BarryH: had they not subbed rhasidat into the European final two months ago it’s likely they would have been 2/3 seconds slower and none of them would have medaled.
@Diarmuid: I doubt it. It looked like she may have injured herself in her last heat.
@P. V. Aglue: do you have inside intel. Nobody is injured.
@Sean Parker: Exactly. The Mixed Relay didn’t Medal at the Olympics *because* Rhasidat pulled out to focus on her solo event (fair, considering it is her very first Olympics…..and she *is* simply better than the whole lot of them. She really is. She has something no Irish Athlete has ever had before – bar Michelle…and, sort of, not even Michelle – regardless of winnings or breaking National Records. Rhasidat has smashed National Records, then smashed her own. National Records that I doubt anyone else will catch up on for a good many years, or at least during her peak active years).
Rhasidat was right to put her wellbeing and professional obligations first.
Let the *team effort* see if it could do enough to get into the final.
Once she has cleared her solo event, she can then see if she is free, and uninjured, and up for it tomorrow.
Why not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Truly, she would be doing them a favour.
But they are also free to let their egos (or racism), or the egos or racism of the Irish Public, get in the way of winning Olympic Medals
@Billy Joe: you cannot be serious?
@Billy Joe: anybody who ran at any stage gets a medal if they win so team be delighted that Rhasidat runs
Super runs from Sophie Becker and Sharlene Mawdsley.The Americans in the first heat looked unbeatable. Hopefully Rhasidat coming in will give us a chance of a medal.
@Fergus O’Connor: And which of the girls loses her place in the final?
@Billy Joe: Probably Kelly McGrory who had the slowest split. She would still get a medal if the team went on to podium in the final.
@Fergus O’Connor: Is Rhasidat going to return to the Relay? Oh holeee sheeeeeeet!! I will lose the plot with excitement if she does. The Relays were a distinctive struggle in her absence. But they will surely Medal if she can rejoin the Relay.
Eeep! I’m gonna pee myself with excitement…
But first, we have to hope she remains free of any injuries from backhanded, unsportsmanlike fouls like those experienced in the Men’s 5,000.
Luckily she is not racing against any sneaky-ass (Football-handballing, Track-shoving) French. So there is far more chance of maintaining bodily integrity free of injury from malicious (French) interference.
@Pink Freud: haha. Thierry will never be forgiven.
@Sean Parker: Never.
When will they ever learn: Do not….fk with the Irish.
I tell you something, if Hugo Hay had taken out an Irish Athlete, there would be none of this softly-softly vernacular: “Oh dear! A collision on the track” in Sports Reporting from us. Mills may be a Brit’, but we would still stand behind even the Brits calling that what it was, and we sure as sheeeet would be calling it out more than they are if it was one of ours: That was a full-on SHOVE, as obvious and open-handed and under-handed as Thierry Henri’s handball, and the Hay should have been immediately thrown out and suspended from any upcoming non-Olympic events for endangering the limbs and livelihood of 4 Athletes.
The girls got the job done. Brilliant, got themselves through to the final.
What a wonderful bunch of young women… Into another final… Wow..
Not really an Olympics fan but I’m so proud of these wonderful men and women giving Ireland a place at the Olympic table
#COYGIG! Well Done! Brilliant last leg!
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: brilliant first leg from Sophie also, Phil performed to and Kelly was solid but will likely be subbed out for the final as was always going to be the case . But yes Sharlene had a very smart fast run.
@Sean Parker: 3 out of 4 of them are sort of new, fresh, Pandemic-era athletes.
Phil has been at it for what …. 8, 9, 10 years playing around at the Europeans, and this is only her 2nd out of potentially 3 Olympics. Possibly her last Olympics. So they may just give her the “one last shot” at a medal, or pull her for that reason.
But also, I suppose, Kelly is a *hurdler*.
So it would make sense to pull her in favour of a “dasher” like Rhasidat.
As it also would make sense to pop her in for a “dash” sprint if it was an off-chance “let’s just see if we can get Team Ireland into he Final while Rhasidat focuses on her solo event”.
Great stuff altogether!
Absolutely brilliant ladies.
Stunners!
It’s a squad event .put your best 4 out in final. That’s the way it works.
My God what a performance.
Giving us all something to cheer and look forward to.
Brilliant to see them make the final / outstanding effort + who knows what happens tomorrow night!!
It goes on women of Ireland more glory hopefully.
Well done and the best of luck in the final.
Best of luck.
Ray Ridge true to form is nowhere to be found in the comments section for another great performance by the Irish athletes. He’s nearly always the first to jump on a thread to whinge and complain when an Irish athlete doesn’t make a final. A keyboard warrior that could learn a life lesson from this unreal Irish Olympic team including those who managed to just qualify without making any final. They’re on the world stage and that’s all you can ask given the budget, population and genetics
Had my doubts they could do the Relays without our ‘Golden Girl’, Rhasidat.
Was delighted to see her pull out of Relays to focus on *her own* races, given that it is her very first Olympics.
In fairness, they are scraping by without Rhasidat.
But fair play to the **all-women** Relay team for clawing back their speed and times.
They didn’t do so well with the men in the Mixed Relay.
Still have my doubts they will medal.
Won’t be placing any bets on them, tbh.
Even though I am a firm believer in getting behind our own, even if/when its a hopeless cause.
But noway am I throwing away likely winnings on Rhasidat, just to “back our own”. (Maybe a euro, or three, there will probably long odds on them…. if Paddy Power et al get their heads out of their Brit-centric asses and start posting odds for anyone other than the British team, and anything other than straight gold)
Have me bets placed on our Rhasidat though!!
(And the Bahrainian, Nasser. Sorry Rhasidat/Team Ireland)
Should be a savage return. Medal, or Gold.
Mmmm, juicy moolah!!
Also…
Really wish the Irish Athletes would stop this grubby greedy behaviour created by Americans/WASP Colonies and the like, of putting the Medal between their teeth. It is so distasteful, obnoxious, disrespectful, undignified, lacking in class, and wholly un-Irish.
Also, not a 1 comment from Irish Media on the fact that no one, not one bledy Athlete on the Team “Ireland” roll, are capable of singing the National Anthem when they do win Golds (Olympic, Europeans, Worlds or elsewhere)
How profoundly embarrassing.
What an indictment of the Irish Education System.
Was horrified to see every single member of the Mixed Relay in Rome, having no knowledge whatsoever of the National Anthem.
Mortifying for the Nation of Ireland.
You wouldn’t catch the like of it from any other Nation. By god they would get a ripping from the people of France, and an unmerciful perpetual admonishing from the Americans. Some Nations simply wouldn’t select them for the Olympics the next time ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But Daniel Wiffen was the worst so far this year.
I mean he’s brilliant an’ all.
But jaysus, you’d be wanting his mammy to strangle him ….only he doesn’t have an Irish mammy to do the Irish duty of ass-wupping him.
Fidgeting.
On an *Olympic* Podium, fer jaysus sakes.
Not only does he have an obvious *British* accent, and not even a crumb nor hint of any Irish accent – of all the 32 County accents – on him, despite supposedly being “raised in Ireland for 20 years” (was he raised, and homeschooled, in isolation on a farm with exposure to only his parents’ accents?). Repeatedly, I have tried to decipher out any hint of an Ulster accent – there is none! He sounds exactly like his parents. But that aside – fidgeting on the Podium during the National Anthem while Athletes in 2nd and 3rd place from **other Nations** show far more respect for the Irish National Anthem and flag.
It is indicative of a questionably possible intentional subversive action that a Unionist might take – take a place on the Irish Team, win, then publicly disrespect their National Anthem.
And where are “Team Ireland” and the “Olympic Federation of Ireland” on this?
Do they not Educate their Athletes on basic Podium protocols!!?
Zip up the open neck of any tops.
Tie your shoe laces.
Long trousers, no shorts.
Pin your arms by your side or grasp your hands behind your back.
Head up.
And just remain still…..if you can’t manage to sing the National Anthem in the mother tongue.
And his parents being British, and of no Irish heritage whatsoever, no background in Ulster either – all this basically opens the door for any Brits with no Irish background to move to NI and take Irish opportunities away from the actual Irish.
The privileged Colonial Power gets to start literally *stealing* Olympic opportunities and places from actual Irish Athletes – the disadvantaged post-Colonial Nation’s indigenous people?
Daniel Wiffen os great!
But he is also the worst possible precedent.
It’s bang out of order and not fair.
It’s also not fair, more particularly, on those who are actually indigenous to Northern Ireland, of several generations settled in Northern Ireland, be they (*Ulster*) Unionists or Nationalists.
If Brits, any oule Brit, or any Brit who fails to make the British Olympic Selection, who has intergenerational settlement on the British island but moves to Northern Ireland – and can then claim the dual passport privledge afforded to Northern Ireland Residents – then they are stealing away the opportunity for the convergence of *Ulster* Unionism, with Southern Ireland, through Sport.
It’s not right.
All non-NI-heritage Brits should be excluded from exploiting that exceptional privledge.
But truly, less seriously, the accent itself is baffling. Am I the only one who can’t distil any hint of Northern Ireland from his accent?
I know people that pop up to relatives in Belfast for a day or three and can’t avoid absorbing the accent into their own thick Southern County accent fer jaysus sakes.
But regardless of failure-to-acquire-accent weirdness (after all, we did have a majority of entirely Brit-accented Irish descendants in Jackie’s Army in the 90s World Cup), or indeed the questionable exploitation of the dual-passport loophole – the absolute worst with Wiffen in particular (but he is not alone in it) was the incessant fidgeting on the Podium.
Total disrespect to the Anthem of the Nation you supposedly claim to represent.
Jackie’s Army were all raised in Britland, but every last one managed to remain perfectly still during the Irish National Anthem, at least. Even if they didn’t know a word of it.
And nobody expected them to know a word of it.
Nor would anyone expect it of NI athletes, necessarily.
Bit you do expect stillness on the Podium.
And you definitely expect to see ALL the Southern born and raised Athletes knowing and singing their National Anthem!!!
Unlike the Mixed Relay athletes in Rome.
An indictment of the Dept of Education, all Primary School Teachers & Principals, AND the Olympic Federation of Ireland itself (who should only have to run a revision class on it, and polish up the podium protocols, *after* the schools have done the leg work in early education).
…also disappointed that Media have failed to cover the fact that all the Racists are probably screaming into oblivion…
Since France has supposedly set up an AI ring safety and wellbeing for athletes. So all the racists racial abuse is being filtered out.
Have the Irish Media bothered to ask Team Ireland IF this protocol has been in effect and IF it is even working for Rhasidat?
…because it doesn’t seem to have worked for the intersex (not Trans) Athletes who are ***actual AND factual*** women.
Psychology is everything between Medal and Injury.
@Pink Freud:
Does intersex not mean a bit of both ? Does this not contradict saying they are actually women ?
@Regular John: No.
And that is a shameful, horrible and horrendously hurtful thing to say about anybody’s infant child.
I bet yer the same sort who would be anti-abortion, and yet you would devalue and denigrate the life and dignity of an infant child so easily.
All children are beautiful.
All children are born beautiful.
Even if they have 6 toes!!
Or a Cleft Palate!
Or a third nipple!
…or a willy and ovaries.
…or a fanny, and internal testes and no ovaries.
…or testes AND ovaries
Who knows! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Life *is* a Lottery.
And ALL life *IS* precious.
[side note: Journal_dot_ie doesn't like the P-word or the V-word, hence aunt Fanny and uncle Willie had to pay to visit to the comments section]
But your comments, John, are most abominable.
Especially given the 1930s-80s abhorrent Medical Historical practice of Doctors coercing parents of (formerly: hermaphrodite) intersex children into removing or “closing up” visable exterior appendages on intersex *infants* and pre-pubescent children. Without ever fully exploring the realities of the infant’s or child’s *internal* organs or waiting to discover how the individual was destined to develop upon approaching, or proceeding through, puberty.
Without giving the child the agency to express how they feel themselves upon reaching appropriate maturity.
That is, and ever will be, the most abominable and barbaric History in Medicine.
Yet among the lay society, it is YOU aggressive *men* in all our societies that have utterly failed to learn anything from it.
Yours is also a shameful and hurtful attitude to openly express, given the hundreds of thousands of men and women who struggle with hundreds of variations of hormonal or autoimmune medical conditions that impact them in similar ways.
Medical *symptoms* that undermine their sense of their actual identity, and more specifically their gender identity.
You should be ashamed of yerself!
Yer mammy ought to give you a good clip around the ears.
And if she is Irish, she surely would, because there is not a woman in Ireland who hasn’t got a sister, mother, daughter or aunt who hasn’t had to struggle with or against the excessive expression of one or both of the 2 “more male or androgenous” of the 4 hormones in women’s menstrual cycles, at one time or another, in their lives.
Humans consist of a multitude of variations and anomalies. Especially in genetic expressions – many of which we still don’t fully understand.
1 person can possess TWO different DNA sequences simultaneously – Chimaera.
And 0.01% of the population are born with their organs on the opposite side.
And equally humans – **as in nature itself** – often are born into and exist in a state of dual-gender attributes.
Both Boxing Athletes are NOT Trans.
They ARE women.
And it is truly abominable that actual women are baring the brunt of a (Right-wing) Fascistic Culture War that sprouted from a (*Left*-wing) Fascistically impulsive (non-Boycott!) ‘Cancel Culture’ campaign.
[Not that I personally have any issue with Trans women. *I* don't. But nonetheless, the Rights and Dignity of Intersex persons is, and must be, paramount!].
@Pink Freud: ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Additionally, and seperately, John et al…
Looong before, many decades before, the Left-wing *and* Right-wing **Fascistic** Culture Wars
– I also always believed that the Olympics-above all others-would have the progressive forethought, decency and knowledge of science&psyche, to Evolve and develop a *3rd* Olympic Division/Category.
Just as it was for women 100 years ago when they weren’t allowed in, when there was only 1 gender Category (men), then they were allowed enter the Olympics, and a segregated Gender Category was formed *for* them. And there were so few competitors at first – that everyone got a Medal!!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
So I see no harm whatsoever in opening a 3rd ‘open gender’ category in the Olympics. Especially for those who don’t make the Testosterone levels, or would be medically better off not trying to unnaturally force it down.
Open to all intersex.
And all Trans.
Or, indeed, for those who may wish to choose to compete within their transitional gender, but also within a mixed setting against mixed competitors.
But this is especially crucial, imo, to have a 3rd Gender Category for *head* impact sports in particular.
Like Boxing or Rugby.
Boxing shouldn’t be just weight classes, if, in future, actual Trans Athletes are going to be included with cis women then long-term Brain Injury does have to be considered, and there has to be a means to measure the fact of bone mass/weight behind a punch, and more generally the whole of the punch ‘impact+force’ pressure must be gauged somehow.
At the very least, a third open gender category will put an end to the aggressive arguments **from both sides**.
But it shouldn’t be done to appease you lot.
Nor should it be exclusionary.
It should simply have been done long ago because it is *inclusionary*, and simply just more equitable, and fair.
That said though, that Italian Boxer was nothin’ but an oule cry baby.
A whinger.
A merleen.
The Algerian boxer has been beaten, many times, by cis and non-intersex women.
Including our own Kellie Harrington.
Olympic Boxing, and the wider International Sport of Boxing, needs a giant overhaul.
First of all – why were MEN judging the Women’s Boxing at the Olympics?
And ALL MALE Referees?
There is no excuse!
Ireland now has both retired Kellie, and Katie Taylor (if she’s not doing Olympics) available to judge women’s boxing at the next Olympics.
And several other Nations have a wealth of female boxers, especially former Olympians and World Champs.
It’s not enough for Olympics to extricate tself from Criminally-involved IBA.
The world needs a counter-league to the IBA.
And that likely starts with literally *uninvolved* Women. Women were so long on the outside, that they are least likely entrenched in corruption.
Arguably, women should also judge and referee the *Men* at the next Olympics.
And in an International counter-league to the IBA.
@Pink Freud:
Jeez.. I’m sorry I asked now !
@Regular John: Good.
“Mad Elaine” tried it on with me too.
…..end ended up agreeing with me on everything she used to scream against ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That’s called the consequence of dialogue hun.
A resolution through discourse to a *balanced* consensus.
Not an un-Irish screaming, raving, conformity of confirmation bias (aka hysterical actual sheeple calling the calm free thinking dialogue and discourse “sheeple”)
@Pink Freud:
I didn’t try anything on with you ! I asked a simple question. Why you felt the need to get so defensive and insulting is a bit of a mystery.
have your say