U-20 relay quartet fly into medal contention

IT has been coming for many years, a situation like this. In Tampere, Finland, this afternoon, an Irish quartet stands on the brink of a global sprint medal, lining up for the women’s 4x100m final at the World U-20 Championships with as good a chance as any at gold.

To get there, Molly Scott, Gina Akpe-Moses, Rhasidat Adeleke and Patience Jumbo-Gula turned in a supreme performance yesterday to take victory in their heat in 44.27, a race that saw Jamaica disqualified for breaking the changeover zone.

Ireland came home clear winners from Italy and France and rank second quickest in today’s final, which goes to the line at 2:04pm Irish time.

Carlow’s Molly Scott made a quick turnaround after her 100m hurdles heat yesterday morning to lead them off with a quick first leg.

“I felt really good, got out of the blocks well and I knew that was the job I had to do,” she said. “I was pretty nervous about it but it went well. We didn’t take any risks but in the final we’re going to.”

Gina Akpe-Moses ran second and for the European U-20 100m champion, the relay proved the perfect antidote to the disappointment of her eighthplace finish in the 100m final here on Wednesday.

“I decided to just go for it,” she said. “We have to give it our all now in the final.”

Rhasidat Adeleke, the European U-18 200m champion, is a doubt for the final after picking up a hamstring strain in the heat, though the team will have an able deputy in Ciara Neville, who was absent from the heats as she was competing in the 200m semifinals, where she finished eighth in 24.68.

Patience-Jumbo Gula, who runs the anchor leg, highlighted that a rare opportunity is now presenting itself for Ireland, a nation which has won just two medals in the history of the championships: Antoine Burke’s high jump silver in 1994 and Ciara Mageean’s 1,500m silver in 2010.

“We’re going to go out and do what we did today, go out hard,” said Jumbo-Gula. “We’re pretty confident.”

The success stories didn’t end there for the Irish, with Sommer Lecky breezing into tomorrow’s high jump final with a first-time clearance at 1.84m.