Sharlene Mawdsley's World Athletics Indoor Championships dreams were shattered after she was disqualified for obstructing Austria's Susanne Gogl-Walli having qualified for the 400m final on Friday night.
Mawdsley had been ranked last of the six competitors in her semi-final but after a turbulent end to the first 200 metres, the 25-year-old Tipperary woman ran strongly and found herself in fourth place entering the final lap with the first three across the line qualifying automatically for the final.
After a tangle with Gogl-Walli at the 200-metre mark as the athletes broke from lanes and clustered around the third bend, Mawdsley summoned enough reserve to pass the Austrian runner with around 100 metres to go but her move to claim the inside running line was a sharp one.
Mawdsley kept up her forward momentum and crossed the line in third position for what appeared to be a qualification berth for the final in 52.16 seconds.
But when Gogl-Walli completed the race in fourth position, the Austrian delegation were entitled to appeal to the track referee and they were successful in making their case, so Mawdsley was disqualified for breaching the rule on obstruction.
Posting on Instagram this evening, Mawdsley described herself "heartbroken" at the decision.
"Thank you for all of the love but I'm so sorry to say I was disqualified for the impediment of another athlete in the race," Mawdsley wrote in her Instagram story.
"I’m so sorry. I’m absolutely heartbroken."
Director of High Performance at Athletics Ireland Paul McNamara outlined why the decision to penalise Mawdsley was unjust.
"We don't agree with the decision and we don’t think it’s a fair outcome," he told RTÉ Sport.
"We think it could easily have gone the other way and the decision could have been overturned. Contact in 400m indoor running is part and parcel of our sport. It’s perfectly normal and to be expected.
"A key factor from our perspective is the outcome of the race. Was the outcome affected by the contact?
"We feel in that regard it certainly wasn’t. Sharlene passed the Austrian at speed and had real momentum. She was closing the gap on Lieke Klaver at that stage and was going to finish third or better in that race.
"The Austrian wasn’t negatively affected. She retained her fourth position, didn’t lose any further ground.
"Alongside that, there is video evidence to suggest that Sharlene did hold her line on that second lap as she passed. She did move in to the inside lane when there was felt there was space to do so.
"With those two factors in mind, we felt the decision should have been overturned."
Mawdsley returns to action in the 4x400m relay on Sunday.
Earlier in the evening, Sarah Healy had been strongly favoured to progress from her heat of the women's 1500 metres and while she ran an unevenly paced race with a number of surges, she bravely challenged the highly-rated World under-20 champion Birke Haylom of Ethiopia throughout and even went into the lead on the final lap.
Her move to the front though had the appearance of being made a little too early and in the home straight her lead was challenged from behind and there appeared to be arm contact as Haylom fought back to regain the advantage.
The friction of the contact did not appear to be a heavy one but Healy, now appearing to wilt under pressure, stumbled and fell just two metres from the line and the top three berth she needed to make the final on Sunday eluded her.
She got up off the track to finish sixth in a time of 4.18.86.
Ireland appealed the contact by Haylom but it was rejected and the result stood.
In the men's 60m, Israel Olatunde posted a season’s best of 6.70 but it was not enough for him to advance.
Olatunde has raced sparingly this season and was ranked outside the top 30 coming into the meet.
The Tallaght AC native improved on his season’s best in finishing fourth, edged out of the third automatic spot by Spain’s Sergio Lopez who ran 6.68. The heat was won by Italy’s Chituru Ali in 6.59.
Olatunde was for a period in one of the three non-automatic qualifying spots before dropping out.
"I came into this championships just wanting to give a good performance, to compete," he said afterwards.
"The margins are so fine in the 60 metres, so not my day today but I'll go away and come back stronger.
"This is a World Championships and I know I belong here. I want more, but days like this motivate me even more and I’m looking forward to my outdoor season."
