by Perri Williams
Everybody knows Sharlene Mawdsley. I have recently heard of her being compared to the Anna Kournikova of the tennis world. Anna would be impressed. Sharlene is too young to have heard of her. The tall, affable Irish 400m runner has graced every newspaper, magazine and social media page. She gets more hits than any other athlete. She has time for everyone. Always smiling and giving her heart to every 400m performance. She is liked as an athlete, as a person.
This year she has shown phenomenal progress in her times, making a European final, clocking speedy relay legs. “If only I could translate this into my individual event” she said to me after she came off the track in Rome, exhausted after her fourth 400m race in as many days. That evening as I took photographs of the athletes, I could see how much she had sacrificed her individual event, for the relay team. She did make the final and despite finishing eight and visibly exhausted, she bounced back later to anchor the women’s relay to silver. The smile on her face as she came across the finish line said it all.
Not every athlete has had an illustrious juvenile career from their early years. For some there is the patience of perfecting technique, growing as a person and making some changes that reflect improvements that contribute to future success. Some start out at different events and distances. Yet others always had that innate talent that coaches recognize. At ten, twelve or fourteen you never really know where you will end up in the sport. You can drop out, dwindle, go through the motions or just knuckle down and strive for more success. Thankfully a young Newport AC athlete, Sharlene Mawdsley was in the good hands of her Newport AC mentors and blossomed into the superb athlete we know her to be today.
There was nothing remarkable about Mawdsley’s early athletics career. Like many she joined her local athletics club Newport AC and there under the tutelage of Fr. Bobby Fletcher she enjoyed the early years. It was not until Mawdsley was u15 that she made her first appearance in a Munster Championship where she finished 2nd in the Indoor 60m hurdles and outdoor 100m hurdles. She was a promising hurdler, with excellent technique. Something that just three years ago she mentioned that she would love to return to.
But that was then. A lot has happened in Sharlene’s life over the last three years. I remember her sitting on the track at the top of the 100m straight on a warm July Sunday. A slight injury and making the decision to pull out of the 400m nationals, to save herself for a potential Tokyo Olympics selection. A selection that never happened. There was disbelief, disappointment, not just with Sharlene when she failed to be selected, but amongst her peers, her family, her club and way beyond. Perhaps this was her defining moment, the catalyst for what was about to come.
Fr Bobby Fletcher saw massive potential in Sharlene. Always playing second fiddle to Pheobe Murphy (Clonmel) at juvenile level, she eventually cast aside that mantle and qualified for the European u20 Championships at just 17 years old. Competing in the 200m she reached the final. Two places ahead of her in that race was a lady called Leike Klaver. It was after this race that Mawdsley knew she wanted “to do this forever”. A lot of athletes life decisions are made around running; the college you go to, the people you hang out with, the jobs you take and the ultimate path you pursue.
Mawdsley would compete in three u20 majors; Europeans in 2015, Worlds in 2016 and the Europeans again in 2017, all over 200m. Leike Klaver was an athlete she came up against regularly in those years. Another one was Natalia Kaczmarek. In 2019 Kaczmarek won the European u23 400m, Mawdsley was 7th. It was in that same year that she won her first national senior title.
Fr. Fletcher knew Mawdsley needed more coaching. There was a stint with the Harrisons at the University of Limerick, where she attended. Before finally moving to Gary Ryan, her current coach. This marks the transition to her most recent form.
Under the tutelage of Ryan, Mawdsley has moved to a new level. She was always an athlete who had a great belief in herself. Its that secret ingredient for success that is often hard to obtain. This belief can carry you through the highs and lows. That low came on that warm July in 2021. Her self-belief, her support system and her new coach Gary Ryan were catalyst for her vigorous rebound from that moment. The way she has moved on from that time has shown not only just her fortitude and self-belief but her psychological maturity.
Her calendar in 2022 and 2023 was filled with major championships qualifications; Worlds in Oregon, Europeans in Munich, Worlds in Budapest to name but a few. By the start of 2024, she had also won four indoor and two outdoor national senior titles. The Worlds in Budapest were probably her standout moment up to that point. It is where she made a mark for herself. “Even with the relays and knowing what I could produce and the times I could produce gave me a lot of confidence individually. To have been in the world semi-final was amazing and you obviously want to go one step further”.
That step further came in 2024 at the World Indoors in Glasgow. She qualified for the 400m individual final to have it taken away – an infringement. Get over it. Recover. Move to the next race. A day later there was a 5th place in the 4x400m relay final. Fifth best in the World. Things got better, a month later 3rd in the World Relays, some individual PB’s including Olympic qualification and the ultimate – Rome. Let’s just spell things out for Rome; 1st in the 4x400m mixed relay, 8th in the 400m individual final and 2nd in the 4x400m women’s relay. As I look through the lens of my camera, taking photographs on that final night, I see Femke Bol crossing the line in victory and an image appears under her arm – Sharlene Mawdsley, with a smile that signifies nothing but satisfaction.
“Olympics here I come”.