Mawdsley sprints to national gold
By Thomas Conway
It was far from inevitable that Sharlene Mawdsley would steal the show on day one of the National Track & Field Championships at Morton Stadium Santry last weekend but steal it she did.
Having dropped down from her specialist event, the 400 metres, Mawdsley faced a 200m showdown with another Olympian, Castletroy woman Sarah Lavin, who was seeking to capture both the 200 metre and 100 metre hurdles crowns, to complete a unique double.
But Mawdsley slipped past the Limerick hurdler with about thirty metres to go, snatching gold in 23.55s, ahead of Lavin in second (23.80) and Lauren Roy in third (23.88).
Reacting to her triumph in an interview with RTÉ, Mawdsley expressed delight with the result, noting the depth of the field and the quality of the other participants.
“This one feels really special, because the field was so strong,” she said.
“So yeah, to come away with the win, I’m absolutely thrilled, I can’t believe it.”
In further comments to RTÉ, the Newport woman hinted that she is still considering her options in terms of which races to run at the upcoming World Championships in Tokyo this September.
Having missed a considerable block of training due to the death of her father recently, she may make the decision to forego the individual 400 metre event and thus save herself for the 4x400 relays.
The Irish team will be among the prime contenders for a medal in Japan, having just missed out on bronze at the Olympics twelve months ago.
“I have one more race on the 16th of August, which is back to the 400, and then yeah, the Worlds. I haven’t decided what I’m doing yet, but I’m sure I’ll be dabbling in the relays, and then we’ll see about the individual,” she said.
Local success
Mawdsley wasn’t the only Tipperary medallist on day one. Diarmuid Moloney of Nenagh Olympic secured bronze in the 3,000 Steeplechase, finishing in a time of 9:40:50, with Finlay Daly of Sligo AC and Jonas Stafford of UCD taking first and second respectively.
Nenagh’s 4x100m men’s relay team could only manage sixth in their final with the quartet of Ronan Ryan, Christopher Diasonama, Alex Ryan and Benjamin Deegan circling the blue track in a time of 43.55, two seconds behind the Tallaght AC foursome, who secured gold in 41.66.
Olympian Sophie Becker would ultimately go on to defend her 400m crown in a time of 52.87s, having been pushed all the way by Rachel McCann. Although she failed to progress from the heats, emergent Newport AC athlete Sophie Walker - who just several weeks ago reached the final of the 400m at the under-20 National Championships in Tullamore - will have been relatively pleased with her performance, crossing the line in a time of 57.57s.
Day 2
Day Two was a day of near misses from a Nenagh Olympic perspective. Heptathlete Laura Frawley narrowly missed out on a medal in the final of the Long Jump, powering her way to 5.65m in the sand, just 0.03m off third place finisher Rhianna McCarthy of UCD.
Their men’s 4x400m relay team of Paul White, Paraic Hassett, Seán Hayes and Cian Hodgins produced a respectable 3:22:55, but it was only enough to earn them fourth place in a race dominated by Dundrum AC (3:19:84). The quartet from Emerald AC - a club based in the University of Limerick - nabbed second place, just 0.10 seconds ahead of Ratoath in third. There was also a fifth-place finish for Olympic in the pole vault, with Aaron Malik climbing to a height of 3.90.
One year on from the Paris Olympics, these National Championships featured a familiar cast of stars. Not everyone was present - Rhasidat Adeleke pulled out due to injury and Kate O’Connor had opted to take a break in the wake of her heptathlon triumph in at the World University Games, but most of the heavy-hitters were there.
Sprinting sensation Bori Akonola surged to gold in the 100m (10.29), Andrew Coscoran was pipped by Cathal Doyle in the 1500m, and Alex O’Neill outfought Sarah Healy by 0.04 seconds in the 800m.
However, the most poignant moment of the weekend was the women’s 1500m final. Laura Nicholson of Bandon AC took home a deserved gold in a time of 4:13:32, but the race will probably be remembered more for the absence of 33-year-old Portaferry star and European champion Ciara Mageean, who recently revealed that she was battling a cancer diagnosis.