Ireland women's 4x400m relay team through to final in Budapest

The Ireland team of Kelly McGrory, Sharlene Mawdsley, Roisin Harrison and Sophie Becker are through to final of the 4x400m relay at the World Athletics Championships, with the disqualification of the USA team bumping them up as one of the two fastest non-automatic qualifiers.

The Irish quartet clocked a season's best time of 3:26.18 to finish fifth in their heat, but were subsequently elevated to fourth after the USA, who finished second, were penalised for an illegal baton change.

The race witnessed another fine performance from Mawdsley, who ran the fastest of all final legs in the second heat in a time of 50.01.

It may have all been in vain but for the American disaster on the final leg. In a duel with Great Britain at the head of the field, Quanera Hayes missed on several attempts to hand the stick to anchor runner Alexis Holmes.

When they finally did make the exchange, they were out of the legal passing zone. While they crossed the line in second spot behind Team GB, their disqualification was soon confirmed and Ireland were bumped up a place, taking one of the fastest non-automatic spots.

Sophie Becker led the opening leg for Team Ireland and speaking after the race she said: "I'm speechless, to be so close to a national record is just amazing. We were realistically hoping for a low 3:27 so I’m so proud of all the girls".

When asked about tomorrow’s final, Becker said: "We’ll look to come out and run fast again tomorrow and anything can happen. The USA are out and who’s to say what can happen in a world final. We’re going to recover and come back to do it again. We love competing together and we’ll give it our all for Ireland".

The final is scheduled for 8.50pm (Irish time) on Sunday.