SILVER SISTERS
RELAY SUCCESS THE FIRST STEP FOR SPRINT STARS
IN TAMPERE
A GAME of inches, a sport of moments... and never has there been one quite like this for Irish athletics.
A moment spawned from years of anonymous toil, a perfect storm of talent and persistence, of composure under nauseating pressure, a swelling dam of emotion which ultimately burst for four teenage athletes glistening in green.
Patience Jumbo-Gula cried, Ciara Neville screamed, Molly Scott jumped and Gina Akpe-Moses ran, just as fast as she had in the race, to embrace her team-mates after the women’s 4x100m final at the World U-20 Championships, their second-place finish in 43.90 netting the first major outdoor championships relay medal in Irish athletics history.
For all the talent in the team, watching trackside was an athlete who could have the brightest future of all, 15-yearold Rhasidat Adeleke, who played a starring role in getting them there but injured herself in the process.
“I was fine for the first 70 metres but then I was like, ‘oh my God’,” said Adeleke, who felt her hamstring constrict and begin to give way midway through her semi-final leg.
“I just thought, ‘I have to get this baton to Patience or else they will all hate me’. I would hate myself.”
That she did, passing it to one of her best friends in the sport, 16-year-old sprint star Jumbo-Gula, who carried them to victory in 44.27 on Friday.
With the Jamaicans and Americans both botching their baton exchanges, the Irish went into the final as second-fastest qualifiers, with an opportunity looming unlike anything they’d had before.
On the surface, the 4x100m seems a relatively simple race: a test of raw speed and the ability to cope with nerve-shredding pressure. In both departments, the Irish had been well drilled.
Four months earlier they got together at a training camp in Portugal, running through their exchanges countless times with Karen Kirk, relays coach with Athletics Ireland, who sent them back to their individual coaches knowing they were in good hands to build the most crucial component: speed.
They got together on several occasions since, and as the pressure built in the call room last Saturday, minutes before the final, Ciara Neville reminded her team-mates not to overthink the weight of the occasion.
“Just pretend we’re in Oordegem,” she said, referring to a low-key race in Belgium where they broke the Irish U-20 record back in May.
Molly Scott had raced the 100m hurdles semi-final just two hours earlier, and after bowing out in a dis- appointing 13.94, she was told in no uncertain terms by her mother and coach Deirdre to get her head back in the game.
“She gave me 20 minutes then told me to cop on, to forget about it,” said Scott. “You have to just put it out of your mind.”
In the call room, as rival teams formed huddles and got psyched up, the Irish girls were laid-back to the point of nonchalance.
“We didn’t bother with the whole intimidation games, most of the other teams were screaming and slapping and shouting, we were dancing,” said Scott.
“We had really positive vibes, which was what we needed,” said Jumbo-Gula. “We didn’t need to be tense. We said once we get the baton, just run.”
They had been in this situation before, albeit at a lower level, and watched their dreams evaporate.
At the European Youth Olympics in 2015 Akpe-Moses tore her hamstring and they failed to finish, at the European U-20 Championships last year they finished outside the medals after poor changeovers.
Even here their exchanges were far from perfect, particularly the third one, with Jumbo-Gula taking the baton from Neville in fourth place.
The 16-year-old from Dundalk powered up to second in a matter of seconds, then began to think about gold.
HUGE
“I was trying so hard to catch the German girl but she just got away,” said Jumbo-Gula. “But I’m happy we came second; it’s a huge achievement.”
They crossed the line in a national U-20 record of 43.90, just 0.08 behind Germany – about a quarter of the time it takes an eye to blink.
The hours after passed in a dazzled haze of incredulity, and they each had to put their phones on silent to stop the interrupting torrent of messages.
In a sport that only occasionally breaks into the mainstream, they knew the aftershocks could ripple for years. A silver medal in a sprint event at a championships with 150 nations, in a sport with a global reach rivalled only by soccer – this was big.
The reasons for the breakthrough are clear: a huge upskilling in coaching expertise over the last decade, a golden crop of sprinting talent, and Athletics Ireland’s ever-improving underage high-performance programme.
But at the same time, it was a medal won by athletes who operate off a shoestring budget, the hope now being that those who wield such power have the foresight to invest heavily in their future, because this is a generation too special to burn out or fade away.
“We’re making a name for ourselves in the most positive way,” said Akpe-Moses. “We’re coming for everyone.”