Sharlene Mawdsley first up as three Irish chase Ultimate pot
Sharlene Mawdsley of Newport AC, Tipperary. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
The stage is set, the National Athletics Stadium in Budapest looking resplendent, with close to 400 of the world’s best athletes flocking to the Hungarian capital to chase the biggest prize pool in the sport’s history: $10 million (€8.6 million).
What exactly is the World Ultimate Championship? A new, three-day event designed to plug the gap in the global calendar during the sport’s quadrennial ‘off year’ – the one that doesn’t feature a traditional World Championships or Olympics.
Only the top-16-ranked athletes in each track discipline have been invited along with the top eight in each field event. The door has been slammed shut to those in more fringe events, the steeplechase and discus throw among those not deemed engaging enough, according to research conducted by World Athletics.
So, this is essentially the latest experiment to try to make the sport more popular with the masses, a made-for-TV event featuring a slimmed-down schedule, with three evening sessions lasting around three hours each.
But now that it’s landed, will it take off? Event ambassador Usain Bolt certainly struck an optimistic tone at the press conference. “It’s great to see track and field going in a different direction,” he said. “It’s going to be great to see the best of the best. It’s good for the sport.”
With invites based on world rankings, just three Irish athletes have made the cut: Mark English, Sharlene Mawdsley and Rhasidat Adeleke.
Mawdsley is the sole Irish competitor on day one and the Tipperary sprinter has a vicious draw in Friday evening’s 400m semi-finals, her personal best of 50.06 from Paris in June making her the seventh-quickest in the race.
After tearing her hamstring at the nationals in July, Mawdsley missed last month’s Europeans in Birmingham but made an impressive return earlier this week in Rovereto, Italy, winning in 50.58. Among her rivals this evening are the gold and silver medallists from the Paris Olympics, Marileidy Paulino and Salwa Eid Naser.
For Mawdsley, this is a chance to salvage something from a season that looked to be hanging by a thread after the nationals, and insult was added to that injury in Birmingham last month, given a reproduction of her PB would have earned a bronze medal.
English goes into the 800m ranked sixth based off his season’s best of 1:42.97 and the reigning European champion has a great chance of making his first global final.
To do so, he will need a top-four finish in tomorrow’s semi-final, where he’s drawn alongside Olympic and world medallists Marco Arop and Djamel Sedjati along with Britain’s Max Burgin, who ran 1:42.98 this year but who was a late withdrawal from the European final due to Achilles tendon pain.
For English, this weekend could crown the best outdoor season of his career if the 33-year-old Donegal athlete can reach the final and there is considerable financial incentive for those who do, with US$150,000 for first in each individual event and $10,000 for eighth.
Adeleke, meanwhile, will settle into her blocks for her 200m semi-final as the fourth-quickest athlete this year via the Irish record of 22.28 she ran to win European silver last month – a run that was all the more impressive given she’d suffered hamstring tears in March and June.
A repeat of her Irish record on Sunday evening would likely see her through to the final two hours later, but Adeleke will have a tough task and she’s drawn in lane three with US stars Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, Gabby Thomas and Kayla White set to enjoy a gentler curve in lanes six, seven and eight.
Friday: 6.38pm, Sharlene Mawdsley, women’s 400m semi-final.
Saturday: 5.08pm, *Sharlene Mawdsley, women’s 400m final; 5.34pm, Mark English, men’s 800m semi-final.
Sunday: 6.41pm, *Mark English, men’s 800m final; 5.44pm, Rhasidat Adeleke, women’s 200m semi-final; 7.49pm: *200m final
*Pending qualification
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