'It was phenomenal': Kelly McGrory on World Championships experience

Kelly McGrory helped the Ireland women’s 4x400m relay team to an eighth place finish in the World Athletics Championships final on Sunday.

McGrory joined Sophie Becker, Roisin Harrison and Sharlene Mawdsley to finish in 3:27.08 at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest.

Tir Chonaill AC woman McGrory is more renowned as a 400m hurdler, but joined Harrison as a World Championships debutant in a team shorn of the services of Tallaght sprint sensation Rhasidat Adeleke and Phil Healy.

“It was phenomenal,” Laghey woman McGrory said of the experience.

“The final was a different ball game. There was a lot of navigating and a lot of thinking mid-race.

Kelly McGrory and Irish 4x400m relay eighth in the world

Tir Chonaill AC’s Kelly McGrory helped the Irish relay team to finish eighth in Sunday evening’s final in Budapest

“When you’re a 400m hurdler, you’re always running your own race, but I was doing a lot of thinking on the back straight. You have to make decisions. I really felt it on the home straight.

“I think it’s easier to get over the hurdles than it is to make your way through all that traffic.”

In Saturday’s final, the Irish quartet finished in 3:26.18 - just 0.12 outside of the national record - with McGrory, the 29cm aluminium baton in hand, running a 52.45 third leg. For context, McGrory’s individual 400m PB is 54.21.

Adeleke was fourth in Wednesday’s 400m final, but elected to withdraw from the relay, due to what Paul McNamara, Athletics Ireland’s High Performance Director, put down to a ‘risk of injury’ while Healy did not travel to Budapest.

McGrory competed at the European Games in Minsk in 2019, but this was her first time to experience a major championships, something she described as an ‘out of body experience’.

Mawdsley, whose 50.01 anchor was the quickest of the last lappers in their semi-final, roared past the French anchor, Camille Seri, to take Ireland into eighth. Remarkably, it was Mawdsley’s sixth 400m of an exhausting week.

McGrory said: “We came into the final with two goals. We wanted to beat the French, which we did. We wanted to run a national record, we didn’t do that but we gave it our all. We were a little bit more relaxed. We soaked it all up and it was amazing.”

The Irish team saw off the French foursome of Amandine Brossier, Louise Miraval, Marjorie Veyssiere and Seri, who finished in 3:28.35.

There was drama aplenty at the head of the field where Femke Bol, the Dutch 400m hurdles champion, ran a stunning final leg to take Netherlands from third to first right at the death, going past a stunned Stacey Ann Williams from Jamaica. Bol had fallen late in the mixed relay, but claimed redemption in the women’s relay, the final event of a breathless championships.

Eveline Saalberg, Lieke Klaver and Cathelijn Peeters also ran as the Dutch took gold in 3:20.72 with Candice McLeod, Janieve Russell, Nickisha Pryce and Williams just 0.16 of a second behind in second. The British team of Laviai Nielsen, Amber Anning, Ama Pipi and Nicole Yeargin won bronze in 3:21.04.