Fifth place finish for Tipperary's Sharlene Mawdsley and Irish women's relay team in world final

The Ireland women's 4 x 400 metres relay team finished fifth in the final at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow tonight.

The team of Phil Healy, Sophie Becker, Róisín Harrison and Tipperary's Sharlene Mawdsley recorded a time of 3:28.92, just outside their new national record of 3:28.45 set in this morning's semi-final.

The Netherlands won the gold, with the United States in second place, while Great Britain and Northern Ireland won bronze.

Newport athlete Mawdsley ran the fastest final leg with a time of 50.47. She was also the fastest of the 16 runners in this morning's semi-final.

Her performance in the relay provided some consolation for the Tipperary woman, who was controversially disqualified from the 400 metres having apparently qualified for the final.

"I had my redemption today – I'm walking away today as a world finalist finally," Mawdsley told RTÉ Sport's Greg Allen.

"I’m really happy with that, I couldn’t ask for much better from the girls, they put me into a great position.

"When there’s not such a big gap you think you're unstoppable and that’s what I thought I was today.

"I had my cry, a few cries," she said in reference to her disqualification.

"Yesterday I had relay training with the girls and I got up and I went and they just made me forget about it. They were all as hungry as I was and as disappointed for me as I was.

"I literally had the backing of the whole country. Coming out today I was like 'just take in it’. That was my redemption, I fought every bit I could and, yeah, we got into a world final".