Sharlene Mawdsley seeks more relaxed approach for individual races

Mawdsley opened her season in Glasgow in early February and surprised herself, winning in an indoor PB of 51.69. That puts her eighth in Europe this season.

NEW TRAINING REGIME: Sharlene Mawdsley is working on replicating relaxed relay running to her individual performances. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile 

She runs her best when she runs free. That’s long been the case for Sharlene Mawdsley. The only issue? Harnessing that at the time of her choosing.

The Tipperary sprinter is one of the world’s best anchor runners in 4x400m relays, splitting a superb 49.14 to carry Ireland to fourth in the Olympic final. Her individual 400m PB? 50.71. The rolling start in relays accounts for some of that discrepancy, but it’s not near 1.57 seconds.