CONCENTRATING NOT ON the Jamaican to her outside, or the Dutch on her inside, Sophie Becker had eyes only for the purple rubber of the Stade de France track and her 4x400m teammate Phil Healy. She stunned off the blocks this morning, storming through her first 300 metres to emerge from the last bend of the relay first leg in pole position. She was running blind, not knowing if Jamaica were ‘having a really good run or a really bad one’, and it suited her.
Becker’s 50.88 split – the second fastest opening leg from the two stacked heats – gave the baton to Cork’s Healy before any of Ireland’s competitors released their cylinders. We were breathing rare air in Saint-Denis.
If the ever-dependable Healy and Olympic debutante Kelly McGrory could put in strong shifts having been handed the lead, Sharlene Mawdsley would be in a position to take the team home in the top three – an all-important automatic qualification spot. Healy, a 200m specialist, had the imposing Lieke Klaver in her leg but kept an astonishing distance between them through the stagger unwinding and beyond. She would have only felt the Dutch woman’s breath on her neck in the final 50m, at which point her job was complete.
McGrory then had the luxury of being on the extreme inside for the baton handover. Ireland were still in first place. “I knew even at 300m where Sophie was, she was miles ahead of everyone else.
So I knew I had to use that 200m speed; I’d say I ran a 200m PB out there in the f.