Sharlene Mawdsley smashes lifetime best to take 400m win in Italy

Sharlene Mawdsley smashed her lifetime best to take 400m victory in 50.52 seconds at the Savona International Meeting in Italy. Pic; ©INPHO.

Sharlene Mawdsley smashed her lifetime best to take 400m victory in 50.52 seconds at the Savona International Meeting in Italy on Wednesday, a Continental Tour Bronze event.

In her first individual race of the outdoor season, the Tipperary sprinter lowered her previous best of 50.71, set at the Paris Olympics, and set a meeting record to come home almost a second clear of USA’s Talitha Diggs (51.47) and Italy’s Eloisa Coiro (51.79).

Mawdsley had produced a spectacular final leg of 48.34 seconds to help the Irish women’s 4x400m team to victory in their repechage at the World Relays in Botswana earlier this month, a clear sign that the 27-year-old has risen to a new level in 2026. The Irish women’s 400m record remains the 49.07 run by Rhasidat Adeleke to win silver at the 2024 European Championships.

Meanwhile, Athletics Ireland has announced several appointments aimed at advancing the professionalisation of its coaching staff through increased investment. Former international distance runner Mark Kenneally, who was previously the performance endurance lead, will now serve as the performance coaching lead, overseeing Athletics Ireland’s and Sport Ireland’s investment in performance coaching while also working with event-group leads.

Emmett Dunleavy has been appointed as performance endurance coach. Jacqui Freyne has led the pathway programme since 2015 and now will be supported by Niamh Fitzgerald, who’s been appointed as pathway endurance coach, Karen Kirk, the pathway sprints and relays lead, and Barry Pender and Tom Reynolds, who join the high-performance team as performance jumps coaches.

Reynolds was previously the performance pathway lead with Athletics Northern Ireland and has long been a key member of Kate O’Connor’s coaching team. Reynolds and Pender will work with field event lead Dave Sweeney, who has served in that role since 2019.

Sport Ireland have also invested in Athletics Ireland’s high-performance programme via additional pathway funding, which has facilitated the appointment of Shane Ryan as pathway strength and conditioning lead.

High performance director Paul McNamara said Athletics Ireland had “committed to ambitious and challenging targets as we seek to continuously evolve the programme as we build towards LA 2028 and beyond, underpinned by an athlete-centred, performance-focused, coach-driven philosophy.

“Capacity-building has been a focus for us, and we are delighted with the calibre of our recent appointments, all of whom are steeped in performance athletics, and who are already contributing to our performance goals. Sport Ireland’s continued and enhanced investment is a strong endorsement of our strategy for performance coaching.”