Leg-three runner Phil Healy kept the Irish in the medal positions with a gutsy run but it was a three-way fight for the silver and bronze medals going into the anchor leg.
Despite anchor leg runner Sharlene Mawdsley’s renowned relay prowess, she was facing a huge task in attempting to hold off Dutch star Femke Bol and Great Britain’s Amber Anning who finished fifth in the individual 400m final, inches behind Adeleke.
Prior to winning her 400m hurdles bronze medal, Bol had already performed relay heroics in Paris when sensationally running down the US anchor runner to ensure a Dutch triumph in the 4x400m mixed relay.
Tipperary woman Mawdsley produced a brilliant closing leg of 49.14 seconds but it wasn’t enough to secure the Irish a medal as she was unable to reel in Anning and then was passed by Bol in the closing 30 metres of a race where all the quartets down to the fifth-place French set national records.
Becker’s split was 50.90 seconds with Cork athlete Healy also running a superb leg of 50.94 to keep the Irish in medal contention as their eventual time took 2.81 second off the national record set at the European Championships in Rome, when they were pipped for gold by the Dutch.
The quartet had been hoping to add to Ireland’s Paris tally of four gold and three bronze by clinching the country’s first ever Olympic relay medal.
The USA team included 400m hurdles gold medallist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who ran a remarkable split time of 47.71 seconds on leg two.