By: Elizabeth Egan
Published on: May 05, 2025
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There’s no doubt but that Irish relay running is on the rise. In Paris last summer, the women’s 4x400m team came ever so close to what, just a few years ago, felt unimaginable: an Olympic relay medal.
But the current success didn’t happen overnight. The current Irish relay story is the blossoming of seeds that were planted in the unlikeliest of places. Two races in particular spring to mind.
And then there’s been the success. The silverware, the record-smashing runs, the beginning of what feels like something that will provide further fruit in future years.
These are five of our favourite relay races with Irish interest from the past decade.
Women's 4x400m, IUAA Intervarsity Championships, 2016
This race had it all.
Three future Olympians (Phil Healy, Louise Shanahan, Michelle Finn), plus other future national medallists at various distances, including Ellie Hartnett and Jenna Bromell.
Athletes who had competed in multiple disciplines over the two days of the championships.
Those who had been coerced into running one more lap of the Morton Stadium track. And those who were there very much by choice.
A breakout run.
A finish for the ages.
And the soon-to-go-viral commentary to match.
Women's 4x100m relay, World U20 Championships, Tampere, 2018
Irish medals at World U20 Championships are a rare thing. In fact, when the women’s 4x100m relay team took the starting line at the 2018 event in Tampere, Finland, generations of Irish athletes had between them accumulated just two.
Therefore, a silver medal was a pretty big deal for the quartet of Molly Scott, Gina Akpe-Moses, Ciara Neville and Patience Jumbo-Gula who ran a national U20 record that day, the reserves (Rhasidat Adeleke, who’d raced in the heats, and Lauren Roy), the Irish team, and a nation of aspiring relay runners.
For some of that squad, Adeleke in particular, their athletics story was only just beginning. Others, like Roy, have taken till 2025 to blossom. Jumbo-Gula, has since retired, while Scott, Akpe-Moses and Neville, have learned just how difficult turning junior talent into senior success can be.
But no matter their story, this is a moment in time of which they should all be proud.
Mixed 4x400m, World Relays, Nassau, May 2024
Having secured Olympic qualification for both in the qualification rounds, the tight schedule and restrictions around the use of reserves meant that Ireland prioritized the mixed 4x400m over the women’s 4x400m at last summer’s World Relays.
Still a relatively new event, it’s not surprising that the Irish quartet of Cillín Greene, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley set national records in both the qualifying rounds (3:12.50) and the final (3:11.53).
Some of this quartet were involved when mixed relay made the final of both the Olympics in 2021 and the World Championships in 2022, but the addition of Rhasidat Adeleke gave them their first serious chance of a medal. The team duly delivered, as they finished a close third behind the USA and the Netherlands.
Most of Ireland may well have been sleeping when the quartet won their bronze medals, but the 48.45 split from Adeleke made the world sit up and take notice.
Watch the conclusion of the race here!
The full race can be watched in Ireland via Eurovision Sport coverage (mixed relay is 2hrs 46 mins into the day two coverage).
Mixed 4x400m relay, European Championships, Rome, June 2024
The World Relays, it seems, was just a prelude for things to come. With Adeleke, Mawdsley, Barr and Chris O'Donnell all making themselves available to run on the first night in Rome, despite each also having individual hopes for the championships, it was clear that the Irish meant business.
And again they broke the Irish record as they won Ireland’s first European gold medal since 1998. Their time, 3:09.92, was just over a second outside the then World record.
Women's 4x400m relay, Olympic Games, Paris, August 2024
Sophie Becker. Rhasidat Adeleke. Phil Healy. Sharlene Mawdsley. Four athletes having the collective run of their lives. A national record of 3:19.90.
Ultimately short of the sport’s biggest prize. But only just. A mere 0.18 of a second between them and a medal.
We may never see an Irish relay run like this again.
But you can’t help but suspect that these four have other ideas.
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