Wexford woman Sophie Becker helps secure Silver for Ireland

New Ross and County Wexford woman Sophie Becker produced a magical performance from the starting block to help propel the Irish women’s 4×400 metre relay team to a magnificent silver in the European’s last night at 8.05pm Irish time…

Sophie’s explosiveness from the blocks has meant that the Wexford woman has been trusted with and handed the key position of starter for Ireland of the relay race.

It is a crucial position for the team, having to blast out of the blocks and hand the baton over to Rashidat Adeleke in a good position.

The Irish had secured a favourable lane in qualification for the final in lane 4.

True to form, Sophie stormed out of the blocks and had gained the French girl ahead of her within seconds of the start with blistering pace and sprinted on the complete her individual 400 metres in around 50 seconds. The hand over the Adeleke and with huge shout of encouragement from Sophie she burnt the majority of her rivals.

Phil Healy then rolled back the years with a proud performance to set Sharlene Maudsley, one of the super stars of Irish Athletics, on her way to destroy the majority of the track except for the mercurial Femke Bol of The Netherlands to secure Silver for Ireland. Sharlene had actually bet Femke’s split, but had been behind taking the Baton.

Later in the RTE Interview, Wexford woman Sophie Becker joked that they would have to race down to get their make up done for the medal presentation

There we have it. An incredible night for Irish Athletics as a proud New Ross woman helped the Irish Women’s 4×400 metre relay team to a magnificent Silver in Rome at the European Athletics meet and a national record to boot.

It’s an excellent team that we have here and we can be delighted that a Wexford woman is involved in one of the best relay teams this country has ever produced.

Congratulations Sophie, a new Wexford hero for boys and girls across the county to emulate in Athletics tracks across the county.