Kelly McGrory helps Irish 4x400m relay team into World Championships final

Kelly McGrory and the Irish 4x400m relay team squeezed through to the final at the World Athletics Championships.

A superb run Budapest saw the Irish quartet - despite being shorn the stardust Rhasidat Adeleke - clock 3:26.18, just 0.12 outside of the national record.

Tir Chonaill AC woman McGrory stepped up to make her debut on the World stage and help the girls in green into Sunday’s final. Ireland edged in as one of the fastest non-automatic qualifiers with the United States were disqualified having botched their final baton change.

McGrory ran the third leg, taking the baton from Roisin Harrison in fifth after Sophie Becker ran the opening 400m. The Laghey woman ran a 52.45 leg before passing to Sharlene Mawdsley, whose 50.01 anchor was the quickest of the last lappers. Remarkably, it was Mawdsley’s fifth run of the week.

Fintan Dewhirst sets meeting record as Donegal quartet medal in Wales

The four Donegal athletes who were at the Wales Under-20 International on Saturday all left with medals.

“It was amazing,” a delighted McGrory said as the Irish woman recorded a season’s best time.

“It was incredible. It was like an out of body experience when I saw Sharlene cross the line.”

McGrory joined an elite band of Donegal athletes when she stepped onto the track at the National Athletics Centre and is now set to go into a whole new world by experiencing a world final.

McGrory competed at the European Games in Minsk in 2019, but this was her first time to experience a major championships.

Adeleke - who was fourth in Wednesday’s 400m final in Budapest - withdrew from the relay squad. Athletics Ireland’s High Performance Director Paul McNamara said there would be a ‘risk of injury’ if the 20-year-old Tallaght woman raced again.

McGrory won over the 400m hurdles in Finland recently, going just shy of her PB when finishing in 57.27 seconds to win gold at the Tampere Motonet GP meeting. That was just five hundredths of a second off her Donegal record of 57.22, set in June 2022.