UL has always felt like home for Irish sprinter Sharlene Mawdsley

UL has always felt like home for Newport AC athlete, Sharlene Mawdsley, who has had one of her most successful seasons to date. Sharlene has competed for Ireland throughout 2023,  both individually in the 400m sprint and as part of the mixed 4x400m relay team. 

Speaking at the launch of restaurant chain, Zambrero, meal packing event for World Hunger Day, in which she is an ambassador, Mawdsley said: “I have been training in UL since my Junior Cert and look I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without it.  I really like living at home and being close to my family so UL is perfect. All my training and track sessions are done there.”

One of the Tipperary native's highlights this year was the World Athletic Championships in Budapest which took place in August. 

As well as concentrating on her individual events, Mawdsely also  ran the anchor leg  in the 4x400m mixed relay semi-final in which her superb pace of 50.14 was the quickest of all anchors in the race and saw the Irish team through to the final. This inspired  her on to run a personal best time in the 400m heats and finish seventh in the World Championships semi-final. 

Mawdsley said her season ‘started off fine’ and was ‘nothing special’ until the European Team Championships took place. “Even though we were in the third division, it was just the win. It’s not often you go out to the track to represent Ireland to actually win so that definitely motivated me for the World Championships as well. Things just started falling into place for me in Budapest and it was nice to see that all my training was paying off.”

Sharlene has already qualified for the European Championships in Rome next year while admitting she is taking ‘one day at a time’ but is  not looking too far ahead into the future.