BALINEEN bullet Phil Healy raced for the Irish 4x400m women’s and mixed relay teams at the world relay event in Guangzhou, China. It was a productive meet as both Irish teams qualified for the World Championships being held in Tokyo, Japan, later this year, and capped off another positive weekend for Irish athletics.
Healy raced for the women’s team in Saturday’s heats alongside Sophie Becker, Lauren Cadden and Rachel McCann before Rhasidat Adeleke and Sharlene Mawdsley replaced Healy and Cadden for Sunday’s race. After dropping down to third place by the time Healy took the baton for the final leg, the West Cork woman comfortably held onto her position, completing a team time of 3:30.06. That outcome gave the Irish team a good platform to seal qualification the next day.
On Sunday, the Bandon AC athlete lined up for the mixed quartet where Healy was joined by Cadden, Jack Raftery and Aaron Keane. The mixed side finished eighth in their final, clocking a time of 3:19.64.
Saturday’s qualification, via Adeleke, Mawdsley, Conor Kelly and Cillin Greene, had already booked Ireland’s place in the mixed event at this year’s World Championships.
The West Cork star reacted to an ideal weekend on a team and individual standpoint.
Phil Healy in action in the 4x400m mixed final at the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China.
‘Absolutely super weekend,’ Healy said, speaking to Athletics Ireland after the mixed event. ‘The job was to get as many teams as we could to qualify. The mix and the women’s are going to Tokyo. That’s phenomenal to be at a World Championship. We belong at these major championships. We obviously contend now for medals as well.
‘The job is done and everybody goes back and focuses on their individual season before we come back for team championships and then World Championships later in the year.’
For the Irish women’s team, they secured their championship spot on Sunday after narrowly missing out on automatic qualification during Saturday’s heats. The 4x400m team of Becker, McCann, Adeleke and Mawdsley dominated their repechage race to secure their place at Tokyo 2025, clocking an impressive time of 3:24.69.
Meanwhile, the men’s 4x400m team of Conor Kelly, Cillín Greene, Chris O’Donnell and Jack Raftery finished seventh in their heat in a time of 3:04.42 which was not enough to secure Tokyo qualification.
