Sharlene Mawdsley lowers 400m personal best again on Diamond League debut

Mawdsley lowered her 400m personal best for the fourth time in six weeks

Sharlene Mawsley set a new 400m personal best of 50.06 at the Diamond League meeting in Paris. Pic: Sona Maleterova/Getty Images

It’s been a breakthrough season for Sharlene Mawdsley and the Tipperary sprinter took another step forward in her Diamond League debut in Paris today, finishing fifth over 400m in a personal best of 50.06.

That’s the fourth time Mawdsley lowered her 400m PB over the last six weeks, the 27-year-old’s previous best being the 50.14 she ran in Hengelo, the Netherlands last week. The 50.06 puts her fifth on the European rankings this year, with next month’s European Championships in Birmingham being her chief target for the season.

Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino of Dominican Republic proved a class apart in Paris, smashing the Diamond League record when winning in 48.48, with rising star Lurdes Gloria Manuel of Czechia second in 49.37, Jamaica’s Stacey Ann Williams third in 49.51 and Dutch athlete Lieke Klaver fourth in 49.97.

Sarah Healy was also in action, the reigning European Indoor 3000m champion racing her first 1500m since finishing 10th in the world final last September. Healy came home 11th in 4:01.50, with her training partner Georgia Hunter-Bell taking victory in 3:55.63.

Andrew Coscoran turned in an off-colour run in the men’s 1500m, the Balbriggan native going with the leaders through the opening half but dropping back through the pack on the penultimate lap before trailing home 15th in 3:46.91. Australia’s rising star Cameron Myers turned in a commanding performance to take victory in 3:28.00, an Oceanian record.

Swiss star Audrey Werro made a bold bid to break the longstanding women’s 800m world record but came up short, clocking a Diamond League record of 1:53.80, with Dutch star Femke Broeders-Bol smashing her PB in second with 1:55.60. The world record remains the 1:53.28 run by Jarmila Kratochvilova in 1983.

Elsewhere, Nicola Tuthill broke new ground with a victory in the Czeslaw Cybulski Memorial in Poznan, Poland, the 22-year-old Cork thrower setting a personal best in the hammer with 72.73m. That added 25cm to her previous best, which she threw to take silver at the European Throwing Cup in Cyprus in March. Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk, the world record holder and a three-time Olympic champion, finished second with 71.53m.

Meanwhile, Niamh Allen and Fiona Everard were chasing the European qualifying standard of 32:00 at the tRUNsylvania International 10K in Cluj, Romania, but both came up short in a race that was won in just 32:30. Allen was fifth in 32:48 with Everard just behind in sixth in 32:49.