Mawdsley’s perseverance can inspire a new generation

IN ALL FAIRNESS

It’s fair to say Tipperary now has a national star in Sharlene Mawdsley.

The 25-year-old Newport athlete has really come to prominence over the last two years since the last European Championship final in Munich where the relay teams reached the finals. Two years on, they didn’t just reach the finals, they were among the medal hopefuls.

Winning bronze at the World Relay Championships in the Bahamas last month ensured that Ireland would be among the favourites for gold in Rome this week at the European Championships. That brings its own pressure, but they embraced it, none more so than Mawdsley who is quickly becoming the most proficient relay runners in the world.

Her teammate Rhasidat Adeleke is going to be a world star and continued her rise with an individual silver medal in the 400m on Monday night, at the age of just 21, while she is still developing.

In most cases, a star like that runs the anchor leg of a relay team but Mawdsley is so good in that role, Adeleke has to settle for another place in the team. What a nice problem for Ireland to have. Not only is it Mawdsley’s talent that makes her the perfect anchor runner, it is also her coolness, as she showed over the last week. To find herself in the position on the backstraight in the miexed relay final on Friday night, on the shoulder of the leader, she could have easily settled for a medal which would be an achievement in itself. However, she knew she had the finishing speed on her Belgian and Italian rivals to out-run them on the home-straight to lead Ireland to only their second ever gold medal in the European Championships.

She was at it again on Tuesday morning when she was due to be rested for the semi-finals of the women’s relay following the exertions from the individual final just over twelve hours previous. When she was handed the baton for the final leg, she was in fourth place, not far behind the leaders but still with a lot to do. However, her class shone through in terms of biding her time and off the home turn she cruised from fourth to first to book Ireland’s place in the final this evening, where they have a realistic chance of winning another gold medal.

I’ve been trying to figure out why she is such a good relay runner, and the only thing I can come up with is she is running for others rather than just herself and the pressure of possibly letting others down is why she finds that little bit more, even more than in individual races where she is running just for herself and is maybe why she “gave up completely in the last fifty” as she said herself after the race.

Harsh personal assessment of herself is one the great aspects of athletics where you don’t get many excuses. The same went for Sarah Lavin, coached by Nenagh’s Noelle Morrissey, after she hit the second hurdle in the final of the 100m Hurdles on Sunday night which undermined her chances of a medal. Her post-race interview was brutally honest in which she said she “bottled it.” I hate that term as it is overused by many observers when it comes to failure.

The true assessment of whether an athlete has failed is by the athlete themselves. Lavin has come on so far over the last twelve months, inspired by heartache of the death of her boyfriend, rally driver Craig Breen in such tragic circumstances last year. She used that to fuel herself to improve and the set-back of this week could inspire her to more come the Olympic Games later in the summer.

Back to Sharlene, as well as the relay final tonight, she can look forward to Paris with so much confidence, and provided she doesn’t have ill-luck in terms of injury, can now count herself as one of the best in the world in the 400m, which should inspire her to improve even more.

She is really coming into her prime and what a great inspiration she is for young girls and boys around Tipperary who might have the talent for athletics but lack the inspiration to follow through. The clubs, not only in Newport, but in Nenagh Olympic, Templemore, Thurles Crokes, Roscrea and everywhere else should see a boost in numbers off the back of this as Sharlene and her Ireland teammates inspire the next generation of athletes.