The 4 x 400 metres mixed relay team are the first Irish athletes in action when the 2022 World Athletic Championships get underway in Oregon this evening and they're looking to start with a bang.
The team of Christopher O’Donnell, Sophie Becker, John Raftery and Rhasidat Adeleke go in the second heat of their event just before 8pm Irish time.
O’Donnell and Becker announced themselves on the world stage when they helped the 4x400m team to the Olympic finals in this event in Tokyo last year and at the World Athletics Relays in Selesia.
They'll be joined by Raftery and Adeleke for this year's biggest athletics meeting.
Having had a taste of racing for the most prestigious medals in athletics at the Olympics, O’Donnell is eager to repeat the feat in Oregon.
"We’ve set our expectations and we fully believe we'll make the final," he said.
"I was there and I ran at the World Relays and in Tokyo and I feel like there’s something a bit special about this team, two global finals for such a small country. We’ve been doing pretty well to be fair.
"You look at the team we have and there’s no reason we can’t be in there again, I think it’s going to be very tight again either way.
"We’ve looked at our heat draw and looked at our lane draw and even if we’re not top three, we’re probably good enough to get in the next qualifying spots. That’s absolutely what we’re aiming for.
"We’re not going to get carried away. In Tokyo and Selisa at the World Relays when we got to the finals it was such a shock and such a big surprise and the phones were going crazy.
"We were so surprised last year to make the finals and now we’re expecting to make the finals so if we do, it’s going to be heads on.
"Last year we didn’t replicate what we did on day one to day two, so we’re really focused on running superb in the heats but keeping our heads if we do get the good news so we can replicate it."
The Ireland team go in lane four with a strong looking line-up alongside them, which includes Jamaica, Spain, Brazil, South Africa and the Bahamas all going in Heat 2.
O’Donnell believes that Germany will be strong but it's and the Domincan Republic who are the team to beat.
The Domincans, having won Olympic silver last year, can call upon a superstar quartet and will be looking to go one better in Oregon.
Both Lidio Feliz and Alexander Ogando have proven that they're capable of running 400m in under 45 seconds, while Marileidy Paulino was part of that silver medal team and Fiordaliza Cofil has been in blistering form this year.
While he acknowledges the strength of Ireland's rivals, O'Driscoll also believes that Ireland’s Olympic experience can give them an edge and marks them out as a team to beat.
"Germany will be strong, the Dominicans to be fair are probably the favourites outright, they’ve really come on this year but other than that we believe we’ll be right up there with the others," he said.
"The Olympics really brought us on. I think you can see that everyone who ran in Tokyo has been really inspired this year.
"The belief that we get from running in an Olympic final, it’s a pretty decent achievement from us and we’ve got so much confidence from that.
"You can be sure that there’s a few teams in our heats saying that 'we need to beat Ireland tomorrow’. We need to be on top of our game for that obviously.
"The Olympics are the biggest stage and tonight is the next best thing. We’ve got that experience and myself and Sophie have that experience and probably have to take a leadership role.
"We’ve got the two new guys coming in but they’ve been fantastic. They would have been watching us last year and seeing what we could do so hopefully all goes well tonight."
