Wexford’s Sophie Becker was today named on the Irish Olympic Team in the mixed 4x400m Relay Squad…
In what has been a breakthrough season for the New Ross athlete she has been rewarded with a place on the relay squad. This makes her the first Wexford native to make an Irish Olympic Athletics Team since Jimmy McDonald competed in the 20km Walk in the 1996 at the Atlanta (USA) Olympic Games.
Becker set a personal best of 52.32 at the Belfast Milers meet in late May, the fifth fastest time ever recorded by an Irish woman. She followed this up by running her second fastest time of 52.74 in the Czech Republic.
“I am so excited and honoured to be named on the mixed 4x400m relay squad for the Tokyo Olympic Games. The possibility of being on the team really sharpened my focus this year. It drove me to run a personal best of 52.32 from a previous best of 53.66 in 2020.I am now Tokyo bound with the relay squad and can call myself an Olympian,” Becker said.
“I would like to thank my family and my coaches for their support and belief in me,” she added.
Becker has been consistently building towards her 52.32 performance over the past four years. Making her Irish debut aged 20 at the European U23 Championship in 2017 in Poland. The following year she was part of the Irish 4×400 relay team at the European Senior Championships in Germany. 2019 was a breakthrough year when she competed individually in the 400m at the European Indoor Championships in Scotland, over 200m at the European Team Championships in Norway and was 9th at the European U23 Championships over 400m in Sweden.
Despite disruptions due to lockdown, Becker was double Irish champion over 400m, winning the Indoor title in March and the outdoor title August. A very strong winter of training then resulted in further huge improvement and a PB of 53.20 at the Irish Athletics Indoor meet, gaining qualification for the European indoor championship.
At those championship she was 3rd in her heat, just outside her PB with 53.31 and just missing qualification for the semi-final. She was then part of the Irish squad at the World Relays in Poland and was anchor leg in the 4x200m relay as Ireland claimed an impressive second place.
Following on from this she went on to run her two fastest times ever of her life 52.32 and 52.74.
No doubt, Wexford people will have a close eye on this year’s Olympics with Sophie Becker, Foster Horan, and Bertram Allen all representing the county and their country.
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