Irish an agonising fourth in women's 4x400m final

Sharlene Mawdsley (left) struggles to hold back the tears after the Ireland women's 4x400m quartet were edged out for an Olympic medal in Paris

Ireland women's 4x400m relay team finished an agonising fourth in the Olympic Final as they were narrowly pipped for the bronze medal by Great Britain.

The Irish quartet took nearly three seconds off the national record they set when winning silver at the European Championships in June but missed out on a medal as they came in 0.18 and 0.40 seconds behind bronze and silver medallists, Great Britain and the Netherlands.

With the dominant USA taking a dominant victory by 4.23 seconds as they clocked a national record of 3:15.27, the Irish were involved in a scrap for the remaining medals with the Dutch and Great Britain on the final night of Olympic athletics action in the Stade de France.

Sophie Becker's superb opening leg put the Irish in fourth place and that became second spot behind the runaway Americans when individual 400m fourth placer Rhasidat Adeleke from Friday evening produced a brilliant split time of 48.92 seconds.

Dubliner Adeleke was back in the Ireland quartet after missing Friday's morning's heats when Donegal athlete Kelly McGrory ran impressively to help them qualify for the final.

During Adeleke's leg, Jamaican runner Andrenette Knight dropped her baton after appearing to make contact with the Irish woman's back.

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.