Eire secured a primary European Athletics Championships gold medal since 1998 as their 4x400m blended relay staff clinched a sensational victory in Rome.
The Irish quartet of Chris O’Donnell, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley completed 0.77 seconds forward of Italy with the fancied Netherlands staff led by Femke Bol having to accept bronze.
Bol was left with an excessive amount of to do within the ultimate leg because the Dutch completed 0.81 seconds behind an Irish quartet that took 1.61 seconds off the nationwide file set after they completed third behind the USA and the Netherlands finally month’s World Relays within the Bahamas.
Mawdsley’s cut up time of 49.40 seconds was 0.13 seconds faster than Adeleke’s with O’Donnell clocking 46.09 and 400m hurdler Barr producing an excellent leg of 44.90.
After O’Donnell’s regular opening leg, Olympic Video games medal hopeful Adeleke received the Irish into severe competition as she outpaced Bol’s highly-rated team-mate Lieke Klaver.
Barr ran brilliantly to maintain alive Eire’s gold medal hopes as anchor leg runner Mawdsley took the baton in second place behind Belgium.
The Tipperary lady moved into the lead with simply over 100 metres left earlier than powering clear to cross the road in three minutes 9.92 seconds.
Legendary distance runner Sonia O’Sullivan was the one Irish athlete to have beforehand lifted European gold after reaching the 5,000m and 10,000m double in 1998 having gained the three,000m title 4 years earlier.