Jeremy Inson looks at how Ireland saw long-term hard work pay off during a memorable 2024 track and field season.
It’s usually a quiet evening at Rome’s Olympic Stadium. The 4x400m relay race will start on the penultimate day of the first day of the 2024 European Championships.
The Netherlands are favorites with their hurdler superstar Femke Bolly, while Ireland’s back four of Christopher O’Donnell, Rashidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr and Charlene Maudsley are quietly confident of a medal haul.
After all, they walked away from the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas earlier this year with bronze and a national record of 3:11.53.
Just over three minutes later and the Irish line-up had pulled off a huge shock to win gold, their first at the European Championships since Budapest 1998, when Sonia O’Sullivan triumphed in the 5,000m.
After stellar legs from O’Donnell, Adeleke and Marie, Maudsley follows Belgian race leader Helena Ponet with 300 meters to go before charging over the final 100 meters to leave the field, followed by a fast-finishing Ball. With this, the team sets a European and national record: 3.09.92.
Charlene Maudsley (Getty)
Among the 70-strong Irish “fierce celebration” in the stands is Paul McNamara, a former middle and long-distance runner at national level who joined Athletics Ireland in 2006 as development officer. He is now the Performance Director overseeing Athletics Ireland’s Senior High Performance team.
“It was huge,” McNamara says of that performance. “We knew we would have a very positive world relay and that medal in the Bahamas meant a lot. In Europe, the 4x400m is quite strong, especially the women’s and also the medley. You had Femke Ball take the baton on the last leg and the expectation was that she would run on Charlene Maudsley.
“The most beautiful thing in our sport is when four relays put on a performance that is greater than the sum of its parts, and this was one of those cases.”
Ciara Magean (Getty)
The party started a few days later when Ciara Magein slipped between Britain’s Georgia Bell and Gemma Rickey to win 1500m gold, a sign that Athletics Ireland’s work since 2006 is starting to pay off. “Up until then, Ciara hadn’t really seen the summer, but she did a great job.”
McNamara adds: “The second gold medal was outstanding. Ciara is truly an outstanding athlete.” McNamara’s arrival at Athletics Ireland coincided with the Irish Government’s decision to fund what had until then been essentially an amateur sport through Sport Ireland.
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