Times moves quickly on from the Olympics, and six months after Sharlene Mawdsley ran the anchor leg in the bittersweet symphony that was the women’s 4x400m relay at the Paris Olympics things have changed fast too.
Mawdsley has already replayed that race countless times in her own head – the last track event, on the last night of action inside the Stade de France, and on her 26th birthday to boot. As unbearably close as it was − the Irish quartet finishing just 0.18 of a second away from Great Britain (who won bronze) after Mawdsley took over the baton in second − she doesn’t lie: there’s also the lasting sense of what might have been.
“It’s funny, I literally watched the interview last night, with me and the girls,” says Mawdsley, speaking in Dublin ahead of this weekend’s Irish Indoor Championships. “I think it’s a nice thing to look back on now even though it feels like a lifetime ago. So I don’t think about it often.
“It’s hard because I’ve read some of the comments, and they’re like ‘what if she just kept going, and [Britain’s] Amber Anning had to run on the outside’, how that would have played out. But you simply don’t know, I could have blown up and hit lactic way sooner and we could have finished even further down. So fourth is just that bittersweet place to finish.
“And even though LA is three years you look to that so much as well, because you reach such a high at the Olympics, then it’s a really low comedown, and you have to look for ways to keep yourself motivated. So your mind is changing all the time in athletics.”
That it came a night on after Rhasidat Adeleke also finished fourth in the individual 400m made it even more bittersweet, although in truth the Irish quartet possibly surpassed themselves, running an Irish record of 3:19.90, which would have been enough for silver in every previous Olympic final apart from 1988.
It has unquestionably put them in the mix for the coming years, starting with next month’s European Indoor Championships in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn, where the Irish quartet are one of the six invited finalists: there’s also a mixed 4x400m on the opening night, Mawdsley also considering that after anchoring Ireland to glory at the European Championships in Rome last June.
Not long after Paris Mawdsley made the decision to change her training set-up, stepping away from Tipperary’s two-time Olympian Gary Ryan at their training base in Limerick, and linking up with London-based Tony Lester, whose group includes the Nielsen twins, Lina (who won bronze in the 400m hurdles in Paris), and Laviai (who won bronze in the 4x400m and mixed relay).
“I’d always set my whole Olympics to 2024, hadn’t looked after that. Then you look to 2028, and I’ve already said that’s the year I will retire. So that’s four more years, how am I going to get through that, get to LA and do better than I’ve ever done?
“I’d always said I’d love to train in a professional group, and that’s where I had to look at moving coach, because in Ireland I was very much training on my own. It was never a chore, but I knew after 2024 I would struggle a little with the motivation, and when I looked at it Tony was the best person for me at the time.
“I haven’t officially moved over yet, I’m living out of a suitcase at the moment, in South Africa in January, we go to Tenerife quite a lot. But in the coming months a move to London will be on the cards.
“It’s a big change. I think I had more control [over] how I trained before, and maybe now, if the coach tells me to do something, I do it. And I’m training with Laviai and Lina Neilsen, who are the best in the UK. Laviai has broken 50 seconds, so I see that she does the sessions, and makes me say ‘okay I’ll do that’.
“Like I swore before I’d never run a 500m, and this year one of the repeat sessions was 4x500m, so you just have to get out of your comfort zone. The sessions are probably more intense, but I have more recovery, don’t train on Fridays and Sundays on a normal week. And more emphasis on S & C (strength and conditioning). I can do pull-ups now, so, so far so good.”
Mawdsley opened her indoor season by improving her indoor 400m best to 51.69 in Glasgow earlier this month, and is gunning to defend her title in Abbotstown this weekend. But she has also changed her approach to racing so often.
“I think I’m listening more to my body this year. I was meant to race last weekend but just knew I was a little fatigued. That’s something I definitely would have ignored in the past.”
♦ Sharlene Mawdsley was speaking in Dublin at the announcement of SPAR continuing their support of Irish athletes at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn
