![\"Irish](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/062b6eba-6430-450a-954c-4838a9a08140.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBut a race against a former inter-county hurler filmed on a phone in a housing estate beside Semple Stadium around 6.0 the morning after Tipperary\u2019s All-Ireland SHC homecoming in July.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Irish athlete Sharlene Mawdsley launching the Zambrero Ireland\u2019s Plate4Plate Zam Run 2025. Log your run this weekend, take a screenshot, post to socials and tag @zambreroireland to donate extra meals. Photo: Andrew Downes\/Xposure<\/p>\n
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – September 25th <\/p>\n
The video of Mawdsley speeding past Brian \u2018Buggy\u2019 O\u2019Meara in a street race was one of the funniest viral posts of the summer.<\/p>\n
The European relay gold medallist had been celebrating Tipp\u2019s success with her partner, All-Ireland winner Michael Breen, when she got a proposition she couldn\u2019t refuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone must have said, \u2018I bet I\u2019d beat you in a race\u2019. And my competitiveness said, \u2018No, you won\u2019t\u2019. Next thing I knew, the sandals were off and I was ready to go,\u201d laughs Mawdsley in an interview with the Irish Independent.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve been drinking for four or five hours and then something like that happens and you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, God\u2019. I woke up the next day and saw my phone and thought, \u2018What\u2019s happened?\u2019 And then I saw it. I didn\u2019t leave the apartment for the day. The fear was so bad.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen I went to training the next day, I was making sure my legs were OK because Nationals were only two weeks after.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a bit worried, but thankfully, everything paid off. I could have fun and still win a national title!\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Mawdsley got home from Tokyo to Tipperary two days ago to bring an end to her track season. She finished eighth in the semi-final of the 400m at the World Championships for 20th place overall.<\/p>\n
After the highs of last year, the mixed 4x400m and women\u2019s 4x400m relay teams failed to get out of the heats. Sonia O\u2019Sullivan said in the RT\u00c9 studio that she didn\u2019t think Mawdsley got the same energy running individually compared to the relays.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I was just so happy and so relieved to have progressed. I just felt after such a hard year that that was a little reward,\u201d Mawdsley adds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just have a different mindset with the relay. I don\u2019t think as much, which probably helps me run faster. And with the relays, you have a rolling start and I\u2019m anchor leg, so I\u2019m rolling in, whereas in an individual, you start out of blocks and I think there\u2019s a lot more for me to think about. It wasn\u2019t just Sonia who thinks that, so I\u2019ll try not to take it too harshly!\u201d<\/p>\n
Even getting to the start line in Japan was a feat in itself. Over three months ago, her father, Thomas \u2018Tucker\u2019 Mawdsley, died suddenly. She took five weeks off training to grieve with her loved ones and found the three weeks away for the World Championships difficult at times.<\/p>\n
![\"Tipperary's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/edb22dde-6909-4911-a410-1b09d2548ba6.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Tipperary’s Michael Breen and partner Sharlene Mawdsley celebrate with the Liam MacCarthy cup after the Premier County’s\u00a0victory\u00a0in the All-Ireland hurling final. Photo: Stephen McCarthy\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t a day or a moment that goes by that I don\u2019t think of him and everything that we\u2019ve been through this year. When you\u2019re in the middle of the track season, you\u2019re just trying to get by, you\u2019re trying to keep your head above water. I\u2019m lucky I had track as a distraction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard being away from the people you love. I feel like my emotions they\u2019re high, then they\u2019re low. The waves of grief are hard. But being back home makes me so grateful for who I have around me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mawdsley is one of the many athletes owed prizemoney from Michael Johnson\u2019s failed Grand Slam Track venture. She is due $15,000 for her sixth-place finish in the long sprints category, but she\u2019s not banking on ever seeing it.<\/p>\n
![\"Sarlene](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ce44192d-89d4-413c-94a3-9a93d74cb18e.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Sarlene Mawdsley after competing in the women’s 4x400m relay heats at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Photo: Sam Barnes\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have huge animosity towards Michael Johnson because he didn\u2019t start this to go bankrupt. Obviously, it\u2019s unfortunate that an investor pulled out and, OK, we haven\u2019t got our money, but I still feel really grateful that I had the opportunity to race there.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s off hardcore training for the next five to six weeks, although the running doesn\u2019t completely stop. Mawdsley, in her role as ambassador with Zambrero Ireland, is inviting runners to join the first-ever Zam Run.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are asked to turn their weekend walks or runs into extra meal donations with every kilometre logged supporting Zambrero Ireland\u2019s charity partner, Rise Against Hunger.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery kilometre people track on Instagram or social media this week, from Thursday until Sunday, they\u2019re going to donate another meal for every kilometre run. I\u2019ve already messaged Mikey [Breen], we\u2019ve a 5km to do this week. I think that might be a test for me, but we\u2019ll see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
*For more, go to @zambreroireland<\/p>\n
![\"Leinster](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/a3f7b859-6703-429e-aa0a-ebd6c238ded6.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Leinster Rugby’s Darragh Fanning and Irish athlete Sharlene Mawdsley at the launch of Plate4Plate Zam Run 2025. Log your run this weekend, take a screenshot, post to socials and tag @zambreroireland to donate extra meals. Photo: Andrew Downes\/Xposure<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But a race against a former inter-county hurler filmed on a phone in a housing estate beside Semple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,19,17,12392,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-84240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-sinead-kissane","12":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}