Some 14 hours after Sharlene Mawdsley ran the fastest anchor leg of the mixed 4x400m relay final she withdrew from her heat of the individual 400m in Friday’s morning session of the European Indoor Championships.
Mawdsley explained on social media that she had suffered a minor hamstring injury during the warm-up.
“Unfortunately I’ve had to withdraw from the 400m this morning due to a slight hamstring injury in the warm up,“ she posted on Instagram. “I’m devastated after my run in yesterday’s relay splitting a 49.9 but I’ll be back for outdoors.”
The Tipperary athlete had been drawn in the fifth of the five heats, with only the top two, plus the two fastest losers, progressing to the semi-finals later on Friday night. Mawdsley’s interest in Apeldoorn is now over and she will also miss the women’s 4x400m relay, run as a straight six-team final on Sunday evening.
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Another Dutch favourite Lieke Klaver won the second heat in 51.52 seconds, having played no role in their mixed relay success the night before. In that same heat, Ireland’s Lauren Cadden finished fifth in 56.77 seconds, well off her best, having gone out a little too fast in the opening lap.
Rachal McCann also went in heat four, and despite running a personal best of 53.16 to finish fourth, that wasn’t enough to progress. There were some other surprises elsewhere, gold medal favourite Amber Anning from Great Britain was disqualified for a lane infringement after winning her heat in 51.01 seconds.
Sarah Lavin produced another cool and confident run to seal her place in the final of the 60m hurdles later this evening (8.43pm Irish time), nailing second place in her semi-final to ensure an automatic qualifying spot.
After running a season best of 7.93 seconds to win her heat on Thursday evening, Lavin returned to the Omnisport Arena with clear intent, having made European and World Indoor finals over the previous two years.
Pia Skrzyszowska from Poland, the 2022 European outdoor champion in the 100m hurdles, took the win in 7.84, with Lavin a clear second in 7.94. It promises to be a tight and hard-fought final, Ditaji Kambundji from Switzerland winning the other semi-final in 7.82, ahead of Dutch hope Nadine Visser, second in 7.85.
Lavin finished sixth in the final in Istanbul two years ago, and the 30-year-old from Limerick certainly won’t lack motivation to make the podium this time around.
Earlier, both Mark English and Cian McPhillips endured a tense experience in their heats of the 800m, McPhillips bring tripped down the final backstretch of his race, and ending up on the track, as did Bartosz Kitlinsk from Poland in front of him.
Crucially, both runners got up to finish the race, McPhillips coming home in 1:57.35, and after Kitlinsk successfully appealed the contact which had earlier knocked him off his stride, McPhillips too was reinstated on appeal. Both runners will now take their place in the semi-finals on Saturday.
English is the only member of the team who has won medals at this level before, an 800m silver in 2015 and bronze in 2022, but rode his luck a little, still in fourth coming off the final bend, before a gap opened up and he finished second in 1:46.42.
