The first warning siren sounded when the USA broke their own world record, in the first heat of the mixed 4x400m mixed relay, just an hour into the first evening athletics session inside the Stade de France.
Geographically speaking Paris may not be far from Rome, but the Olympic Games are a million miles from a European Championships, as the Irish quartet soon discovered. Especially without Rhasidat Adeleke on board.
From the first baton exchange it was evident they had a real challenge on their hands, and so it transpired, the quartet of Chris O’Donnell, Sophie Becker, Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley run out of a place in the final, finishing 10th overall with eight teams progressing to Saturday’s final.
Ireland finished fifth in their heat in 3:12.67, almost three seconds down on their national record of 3:09.92 set when winning the European gold medal in Rome in June, a straight final when Adeleke ran the second leg.
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“It’s a proper Olympic experience out there, a proper Olympic Stadium, we are disappointed because we knew we were good enough to make that final,” said Barr. “You can’t pick apart where anything went wrong, but there’s no lying, we are disappointed, we were aiming for that final.”
Ireland made the final in Tokyo, and indeed the event is fast moving on, in depth and quality, as the USA proved when winning that first heat in 3:07.41, taking over a second off the mark set when winning the world title last year. France also set a national record of 3:10.60 in second as did Belgium, third in 3:10.74.
O’Donnell insisted that Ireland weren’t put off by that: “No, we were just focused on ourselves. We’ve been outperforming ourselves and expectations for years and years, and today we probably just met our expectation, it’s hard to always overachieve, but we are disappointed, gave it everything”.
O’Donnell started for Ireland in lane seven, and after that first exchange they were in fourth. Becker held her position well, before Barr found himself in fifth. And despite the best efforts of Mawdsley, she couldn’t make up ground on the leading quartet.
O’Donnell’s split was 45.99, Becker’s 51.37, Barr’s 45.25 and Mawdsley closed in 50.06, having run 49.40 in her anchor leg in Rome in June.
“It was difficult because I’ve not been in that position this year with such a big gap,” she said. “So it felt a bit like a solo run. It was really hard to judge my pace because I am really good at using other people in a relay and I was out there on my own.”
In winning Ireland’s heat, Great Britain improved their national record to 3:10.61, and finished ahead of the Netherlands and Italy, who finished behind Ireland in Rome.
Adeleke is putting all her focus on the individual 400m, and will begin her medal quest in the women’s 400m on Monday.
Before leaving the mixed zone, Barr shed some parting tears, the 32-year-old signing off on what was his third Olympics.
“I was getting a small bit emotional out there all right, because it’s settling in for me that’s definitely my last Olympics, maybe my last race. I’m not sure yet, I’ll take a step back and assess that.”
The first Olympic track final, the men’s 10,000m, was won in typically ferocious style, when after 25 laps of running, less than half a second separated the top three. World record holder Joshua Cheptegei from Uganda bided his time before moving to the front just over a lap from home, winning in an Olympic record of 26:43.14
With that Cheptegei just held off the late charge of Berihu Aregawi from Ethiopia, who win silver in 26.43.44, the bronze medal brilliantly won by the USA’s Grant Fisher, who narrowly missed out on the podium in the last two World Championships. He came home in 26:43.46.
In their first step in their quest to go where no woman runner has gone before, Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon and her Dutch rival Sifan Hassan both qualified for the final of the 5,000m. Kipyegon is eyeing a 1,500m-5,000m double, while Hassan has targeted a 1,500m-5,000m-marathon treble.
Kipyegon won the first heat in 14:57.56, Hassan right beside her in 14:57.65, and they’ll now chase that first gold medal on Monday night. Only the top eight from each heat progressed, and Ireland’s Jodie McCann was well distanced in the second heat, finishing at the back of the field in 20th, in 15:55.08. Eric Favors also fell well short of qualification in the shot, 13th in his group with a best of 19.02m.
