Paved with Gold
Sharlene Mawdsley has realistic ambitions of another gold medal at the European Athletics Championship as the Ireland women’s 4x400m relay team take to the track for the final in Rome this evening (Wednesday).
By Shane Brophy
If one gold medal wasn’t enough for the Newport AC athlete following her mixed relay success last Friday, she can realistically add a second as Ireland will be among the favourites as individual 400m silver medallist Rhasidat Adeleke sat out the semi-final on Tuesday morning, but is expected to come back into the team which would boost Ireland’s chances.
After finishing eighth in the individual 400m final on Monday night, well outside her best, a tired looking Mawdsley wasn’t expected to run in the 4x400m relay semi-finals the following morning but was a late call-up due to injury and she showed her proficiency once more as a relay runner with a blistering final leg of 49.76 seconds to see Ireland climb from fourth to first and comfortably book their place in the final.
It once again highlighted Sharlene’s mental toughness as she was frustrated with her performance in the individual final.
“When the girl came up on my inside, I was a bit shocked and didn’t know how to react,” she admitted of her individual 400m performance.
“A bit of inexperience so I have a lot to learn from that race.
“There is no excuse for just giving up, you have to run through the line. I’m disappointed with myself at that and going out not having any regrets.”
Regardless of how Mawdsley gets on in tonight’s final, it has been an historic championships with last Friday’s mixed relay success along with Thomas Barr, Adeleke, and Chris O'Donnell joining the great Sonia O'Sullivan as the only gold medallists for Ireland in the 90-year history of the European Championships.
And it was Mawdsley who led Ireland home to gold, eclipsing her Belgian and Italian rivals off the final turn on the anchor leg.
"Honestly, I wanted to take her on the back straight but then I said, 'hold on Sharlene, just use her, she's going out hard',” she revealed.
"I was getting a bit impatient, I wanted to take her on the bend but then I said 'just go for it'.
I have trained my life for this.
"Honestly it's everything to me, probably everything to the team.
The whole stadium was just amazing, and the Irish fans turn up every time and it's just super."