I’m an elite athlete, get me out of here!

By Shane Brophy

There will be more than a little bit of envy this week for people like Sharlene Mawdsley being able to leave Ireland to escape the Covid-19 restrictions, if only for a brief period.

However, representing your country in a major sporting competition is as big a reason as they come, and for the Newport athlete, she will don the green singlet in a senior championships for the first time in the 400 metres at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Poland this Friday.

It was something that caught the 22-year-old runner on the hop a little, unknowingly making the qualification standard when finishing third in the recent Athletics Ireland Micro-Meet in Abbottstown, where she also ran a personal best.

“I didn’t really expect it,” she admitted.

“I was hoping to run a PB (personal best). I didn’t even know what the standard was for the European Indoors before I went out and raced so when the race finished and I had gotten the standard was a bonus and to be able to go.”

She will be part of a 22-strong Irish team for the championships. Initially Athletics Ireland were planning to send around twelve athletes to the European Championships, however such has been the quality of the performances in the early months of the year, they are now sending a team almost double that in size.

“The standard of Irish athletics has definitely risen this year,” admitted Sharlene. So, what does she put it down to?

“During last summer when there were no competitions, it gave athletes a chance to work on their weaknesses and that is something that helped me. I worked on both my speed and endurance. I have always been a fast 400 metre runner but tended to die off at the end, so this year I have been able to do more endurance sessions and has definitely got me to where I am today and making the qualification standard as I am not dying off towards the end of races anymore.”

If getting things ready to head to Poland this week wasn’t hectic enough, including having a Covid test on Sunday morning, the fourth-year student in Sociology and New Media at the University of Limerick, has also been finalising her thesis which was also due to be handed in this week.

However, the Covid-19 restrictions which forced all her studies online for the last year, has inadvertently benefitted her as an athlete as it has allowed her greater flexibility in terms of her training, particularly as an elite athlete which allowed her to access facilities during the Level 5 restrictions.

“I am doing my thesis at the moment, so it is all go so I haven’t too much time to be dwelling on Covid,” she said.

“College has moved on online but being an elite athlete definitely has helped as can do my lectures anytime I want and allowed me to focus on my training.

“During this lockdown I had access to a track, but I didn’t have access to a gym so as an elite athlete I can travel to Dublin and use the Institute of Sport as I wasn’t allowed used the gym in UL. They have started to reopen the gym again for sports scholarship athletes but that has been only in the last couple of weeks but I was without a gym for quite some time so that wasn’t ideal.”

Being classed as an elite athlete also allows Sharlene to compete abroad, provided she has a clear Covid test 72 hours before departure from the state, and prior to the micro-meet in Dublin, she took part in a race in Belgium as part of her preparations.

Heading around Europe is likely to be a regular occurrence for Sharlene when her attention turns to the outdoor season in the coming weeks. The Covid delay from 2020 has also worked in her favour in terms of possibly qualifying for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, postponed from last year.

“The extra year has helped because I was so young,” explained the 22-year-old.

“The girls we have running in the 400 metres at the moment, it’s just phenomenal. Everyone is running 53 seconds, so there is a good chance of a female team going to Tokyo for the relay, but there is also a mixed relay team going too.

“The short-term goal is to get the European Indoors out of the way and then the world relays are at the start of May so we might be invited as a team for the women’s 4x400m, we are definitely invited as a mixed team, so two men and two women will run. If you make the final you are guaranteed to go to the Olympics but if not, it is the top twelve teams in the world will go but eight spots have already been taken.”

Of her chances of making it to the Olympic Games, she is within touching distance of making it, if everything goes right over the next four months.

“I am much better outdoors than an indoor runner, so it bodes well for me,” she said.

“With the extra year for Tokyo, you can now qualify through a points system. You don’t have to get the standard (qualification) in the 400 metres. I have to be in the top 56 in the world to go and I am eighteen places off it at the moment so getting more consistent times will allow me to get higher points and hopefully see where I am at with regards to Tokyo.

“The more you go abroad the higher the points are. A small meeting in Ireland wouldn’t have as many points as it would be in Belgium for example. There have been a lot of indoor competitions without spectators, so it’ll probably be something very similar for the outdoor season. It’s definitely doable.”