Sharlene Mawdsley: ‘Bouncing back is something I’m quite good at’

It’s not always by accident or design that in the running life of Sharlene Mawdsley, every action appears to have triggered an equal and opposite reaction. There is no exact science to it, only it’s clearly served her well.

This soon becomes evident in conversation with Mawdsley, the most recent example being her experience at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow earlier this month. After another breakthrough run to make the final of the 400 metres, the Tipperary athlete was then disqualified for the most minimal of obstruction, despite a counter-appeal from Athletics Ireland. Out, just not down.

“At the time I thought it’s all going to be grand, once you counter-appeal it’s going to be fine,” she says, “but no” – that minimal issue being she’d cut in front of the Austrian runner Susanne Gogl-Walli, entering the last bend.

“I’d never seen anyone disqualified for that before, to be honest. I remember a few years ago people were getting disqualified, but it was for lane infringement. Going back to Budapest (last summer’s World Championships), we were coming ninth in the final of the women’s relay and I’m pretty sure I did the exact same thing against the French girl, I overtook her and cut in as soon as I could. But unfortunately, they just made an example of me this time.”

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So, just like she did three years ago when left behind from the Tokyo Olympics despite being part of the mixed 4x400m relay that originally qualified, Mawdsley reacted with something distinctly opposite: rather than moan or lose heart, she came out in Glasgow on the Sunday morning and ran the fastest 400m split across both relay semi-finals (50.48 seconds) to ensure Ireland made the final, clocking a national record of 3:28.45 to boot. No denying her this time.

I knew I was in quite good shape, so just running again was giving me my opportunity to show I should have been in the final

“I think I’ve gotten quite good at that,” she says, Mawdsley also running the second-fastest split in the final, where Ireland finished fifth. “Bouncing back is something I’m quite good at. Working with my sports psychologist, Jo-Anne Browne, has really helped with knowing I’m able to kick back and go again. I knew I was in quite good shape, so just running again was giving me my opportunity to show I should have been in the final.

“But I suppose it’s done with now, I had to already get back into training, get back on the focus of the Bahamas (the World Relays in May), the Europeans (in Rome in June) and the Olympics (in Paris in July). And I’ve taken a lot of confidence into outdoors.”

She didn’t, incidentally, hear any further word from Gogl-Walli, but says that’s okay too: “I’m really good friends with a lot of the girls I raced against so I thought I would have got a message to say (something), even if it was the federation’s decision or whatever. I’m a bit soft like that, but no, it was fine.”

Given her Tokyo experience, she’s understandably reluctant to start talking up another Olympics just yet. After that hectic week in Budapest last August, running six races including two relay finals, she improved her 400m best to 51.09 in Zagreb in September, just shy of the 50.95 automatic qualifier for Paris. Even without that, she’s ranked 27th of the 48-athlete quota in the event, and looks certain to join Rhasidat Adeleke, already qualified on time.

It was either hang up my spikes or give it everything I have over the next few years and that’s what I decided to do, the latter part.

Still, missing out on Tokyo remains a bit of a sore spot, her reaction to that disappointment coming just a few weeks after the decision was made to leave her at home. She ran 51.70 in Ninove in Belgium, taking a sizeable chunk off her previous lifetime. That also reinforced her decision to try again for Paris.

“Definitely, because it was either hang up my spikes or give it everything I have over the next few years and that’s what I decided to do, the latter part.

“I think everything is going where I want it to go. Like of course, you run well, but you always want more from it, so I’m definitely hungry now for the summer.”

Now 25, her rapid progression action over the last three years is also in no small part a reaction to her decision to link up with Gary Ryan, Tipperary’s two-time Olympian – in Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000. In 2018, during her first year at the University of Limerick (UL), a short distance from her home in Newport just over the border, Mawdsley had effectively given up running completely, with little prospect of returning anytime soon.

My first year in college, I kept getting injured, and didn’t race the whole of 2018

Some friendly banter at a music festival in Sligo later that summer, and a text from Irish sprints coach Roddy Gaynor suggesting she approach Ryan, got her back on track. But it would also mean a change in distance, Mawdsley first showing her potential back in 2016, when the Irish 4x100m relay team finished fifth at the World Under-20 Championships in Bydgoszcz.

“My first year in college, I kept getting injured, and didn’t race the whole of 2018. Again it was the new scene of being in college, making friends, going out . . . so I kept getting injured, and didn’t race at all.

“I think Gary was with Tipperary (hurlers) at the time, then I reached out to him, said I was looking for a running coach. At the time it was just me, no one else, but I’d trained with Niamh Whelan since I was 15, then she decided she’d also go to Gary, so we went there together when I was in my second year in college, in 2019.”

It’s clearly served her well: Ryan won 16 Irish sprint titles and broke 30 Irish records, indoors and out, lowering the 100m record six times before his retirement in 2005. He also helped Ireland win the World Indoor bronze medal in the 4x400m relay in Budapest 2004, so knew a little about that distance too.

“At the start, I didn’t really realise how lucky I was to have someone who has experienced all the highs and the lows as well,” she says. “I went to Gary as a 200m athlete, was a little bit scared because I’d been injured so much on my hamstring, didn’t really have the confidence to run fast, so we made the decision to move up to the 400m.

“I didn’t particularly enjoy it at the start, but it’s worked out in the end. It’s more so as the years go on that I really do appreciate him being there.”

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While UL is still their main training base, Mawdsley much prefers the warm-weather trips, Tenerife next week’s destination. After signing a three-year contract with Puma in January, she can afford the full-time training, also endorsing the Biofreeze announcement this week as official recovery partner to Athletics Ireland.

After the World Relays, the immediate priority will be that 50.95 automatic qualifier for Paris, and another reaction of sorts to her disqualification in Glasgow.

“It’s been huge,” she says. “I even had a hill session last week and that last rep, I didn’t want to finish and all I was thinking in my head was ‘I’ve a point to prove, I’ve a point to prove’ so it’s definitely helped me so far so. Once I go on to the track now, I want to have all of the work done, so I just let my running do the talking.”

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