Sharlene Mawdsley achieved a laudable end-of-season win in the women’s 400m race at the Galà dei Castelli contest in Bellinzona, Switzerland on the preceding Monday evening, rallying from a lagging position to secure the victory in 51.35 seconds. In Mawdsley’s first competitive outing subsequent to her participation in the Paris Olympics, she bested Susanne Gogl-Walli, who had previously beaten her to the automated qualification position in the 400m event in Paris. The Austrian athlete finished in second place with a time of 51.39 seconds, and Netherlands’ Lieke Klaver secured a third-place finish in 51.42 seconds.
Participating in the World Athletics Continental Tour, Mawdsley’s commendable performance followed a brief interlude after the Olympics, where the athlete from Tipperary held anchor position in the women’s 4x400m relay that finished a close fourth, narrowly missing out on a podium finish.
In a similar vein, Luke McCann delivered another impressive 800m run at the same event, clocking a new personal best of 1:45.33 and outpacing the Irish record holder Mark English, who managed 1:45.56. The top spot in the event was claimed by Gabriel Tual of France, with a time of 1:43.98.
In the week preceding, McCann had elevated himself into the top-10 of the all-time Irish mile list by slicing nearly half a second off his best time at the Copenhagen Athletics Games, as he crossed the finish line in 3:52.70. Earlier that month, the 26-year-old sportsman had improved his 800m personal best to 1:45.53 in Szczecin, Poland, which propelled him to the fifth position on the all-time Irish list for the event.