One of the most read news stories in Ireland this week was the achievements of the Irish women's relay team who qualified for the quickly approaching Olympics in London. The team will compete in the 4x400m event in a competition that will have 16 competing teams.

Qualifying with the 12th fastest time on average, the team, comprising of Claire Bergin, Joanne Cuddihy, Marian Heffernan, and Michelle Carey, will now take part in the event which will take place over two semi-finals groups of 8.

It is an extremely exciting time for the well regarded team and supplemented by reserves Cathriona Cuddihy and Joanna Mills, the girls will hope to put in a solid performance. Preparation for the Olympics was boosted by the team's recent performance at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki this weekend where the team still managed to cause quite a stir despite being disqualified in the semi-final for starting their change-over in the wrong position.

Credit to their overall performance though, they still managed not to be overcome by the other teams’ competition, and its all systems go for London in just a couple of weeks.