The quartet of Jack Raftery, Sophie Becker, Conor Kelly and Sharlene Mawdsley might have had a difficult heat draw, but even still, their sixth-place finish in 3:13.59 was a distinctly sub-par performance, 3.6 seconds down on the national record which was run to win gold in Rome last year.

“I guess you can’t have an off day at a World Championships and that’s clearly what we had,” said Mawdsley. “It’s our own fault. We made mistakes in the race but it’s how it goes.

“The event has pushed on so much. We’ve learned so much from it. I know it’s not the time to learn something but for next year, going into Europeans, we are the defending champions so we want to put our best foot forward then. We’ll be back.”

They had hoped to be back on track this evening for the mixed relay final at the Japan National Stadium, but for Kelly and Raftery it brought their championships to a swift close, while Becker and Mawdsley will make a quick turnaround for the heats of the women’s 400m tomorrow.

“Today was not a good day, but that’s how it goes,” said Kelly. “I’m happy it wasn’t a good day because next time I’ll come back and not much worse can happen.”

They had started well, with Raftery running a strong opening leg and handing over to his training partner Becker with the Irish in contention for one of the three automatic qualifying spots.

But the Wexford Olympian, who has so often risen to the occasion on stages like this, had a day to forget, fading through the field and looking a shadow of her former self as she lost contact with the leading teams – an injury-hit year perhaps catching up to her.

Kelly, the European U-20 400m champion, looked fully at home on his World Championship debut, the 18-year-old running a decent third leg, but when Mawdsley took the baton, there was simply far too much to do even for one of the world’s best anchor-leg runners.

She edged her German rival in the battle for sixth, but with only two time qualifier spots available, it meant their hopes of another global final were dashed, with USA taking victory in 3:10.18 ahead of Britain (3:10.22) and South Africa (3:11.16).

“As a collective, we’re disappointed,” said Raftery. “We set such a high standard for ourselves last year, winning in Rome and running so well in Paris that we expect to be in the final every time we come out to a major championship.”

Becker will hope for a better showing in the 400m heats on Sunday. “Hopefully it’ll go better than today,” she said. “It wasn’t to be, we were hoping to be there tonight and it’s obviously not what we wanted.”

Earlier, Oisin Lane turned in a solid performance to finish 28th in the men’s 35km race walk, the Mullingar Harrier clocking 2:41:36 in hot and humid conditions, with gold going to Canada’s Evan Dunfee in 2:28:22.

“It was very tough,” said Lane. “For the last 10K I was just trying to finish, I wasn’t thinking about my position. It’s a huge privilege to be here. So many people dream of this, so many people train so hard for this and don’t get this opportunity. I’ve enjoyed my time here.”

There was another major championship disappointment for Eric Favors who finished 28th overall in the men’s shot put qualification, throwing 19.19m, well down on his season’s best. “I’m kind of upset, I’m not going to lie,” he said. “I haven’t had the time to process it but my preparation felt fine, I just couldn’t get it done on the day.

Laura Nicholson, Sophie O’Sullivan and Sarah Healy will all be in action this evening in the heats of the women’s 1500m, with the top six in each heat advancing to Sunday’s semi-finals.

World Athletics Championships – Live, RTÉ Two, 9:45am Saturday, 10.30am Sunday; BBC Two: 9:30am Saturday; 12:05am/11am Sunday

Irish in action, Saturday (all times Irish)

11.50am: Sarah Healy, Sophie O’Sullivan, Laura Nicholson – Women’s 1,500m heats

Sunday

11.30pm (Saturday): Fionnuala McCormack – Women’s marathon

1am: Nicola Tuthill – Women’s hammer throw qualification

1.35am: Andrew Coscoran, Cathal Doyle – Men’s 1500m heats

3.28am: Sarah Lavin – Women’s 100m hurdles heats

11.25am: Sharlene Mawdsley, Sophie Becker – Women’s 400m heats

1.05pm: Sarah Healy, Sophie O’Sullivan, Laura Nicholson – Women’s 1500m semi-finals*

1.30pm: Efrem Gidey – Men’s 10,000m final

*Pending qualification