Ireland’s Women’s 4 x 200m relay team secured a stunning second place finish and set a national record in the final at the World Relays in Silesia, Poland. The team included Trinity Biomedical Engineering student Kate Doherty, Aoife Lynch, Sarah Quinn, and Sophie Becker clocked up a time of 1:35.93 to secure Ireland’s highest World Relay Championships finish in history. Ireland crossed the line behind Poland, and ahead of Ecuador, after a sensational display.
Running from the favourable lane four, Lynch stormed out of the blocks, finding Kate Doherty around the bend, who put down a solid second leg run. Quinn upped the ante with a sub-24 seconds 200m in the third, before Becker went even faster down the home straight with a blistering finish — though she couldn’t catch the hosts, and eventual champions.
After the race, Kate commented, “I felt at home out there, it was phenomenal. I was fresh today after competing in the 4 x 100m relay competition yesterday – it was great to get back doing the 4 x 200m competition as I haven’t done one since 2019. We’re absolutely delighted with the result.”
Kate also competed in the 4 x 100m competition at the World Relay final’s placing 10th overall securing the team a place in the World Athletics Championships in Oregon next year. A top 8th finish would have guaranteed Olympic qualification for the team, whose 44.53 second finish was just 0.3 seconds off qualification for the Tokyo Olympics.
This weekend’s World Relay Championship marked Kate Doherty’s first senior international caps having previously represented Ireland at the under-23 European Championships in Gavle, Sweden where she qualified for the semi-final of the 100-metre hurdles. The World Athletics Championships in Oregon will take place from 15th – 24th July 2022.