Sharlene Mawdsley and Marcus Lawler lit up Morton Stadium on the opening day of the 123.ie National Senior Athletics Championships, powering to victory in the women's and men’s 200m finals respectively.
Mawdsley crossed the line into a stiff breeze in 23.55 (-2.6 m/s), while Lawler stormed home in 20.66 (-0.4 m/s) to claim the respective national sprint crowns.
Mawdsley held off strong challenges from Sarah Lavin, who clocked 23.80 for silver, and Lauren Roy, who secured bronze in 23.88. The win saw Mawdsley claim her first senior outdoor 200m title in front of a huge crowd at the Morton Stadium.
She later withdrew from the 400m heats on the back of her medal-winning display.
Katie Kirk caught up with the women's 200m national champion Sharlene Mawdsley after the Tipperary woman pipped Sarah Lavin in a nail-biting final in Santry earlier today
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Lawler's run in the men’s final saw him finish clear of Darragh McConville, who took silver in 21.41, and Adam Murphy, who claimed bronze in 21.51. The Clonliffe Harriers sprinter continues his recent run of good form which has seen him play a leading role in the men’s 4x100m team who broke one of the longest standing national records twice back in June.
Finals on the track today also included the men's 10,000m walk which led off the day’s proceedings. David Kenny secured his fourth outdoor title in a winning time of 39:39.93. The women’s 5,000m walk went to West Waterford’s Kate Veale who crossed in 23:46.46 to secure her tenth outdoor win.
Rounding out the individual finals on the track were the 3000m steeplechases where in the women’s race Abbie Sheridan won her first national senior track title thanks to a race-winning-kick with 300 meters to go, to cross in a time of 10:05.72 ahead of Alexandra Joyce and Amy Green .
The field events were busy throughout the day’s schedule with the performance of Olympian Eric Favors in the men’s shot one of the highlights. The Paris Olympian took gold with a winning throw of 19.58m.
Niamh Fogarty claimed top spot in the women's shot put with a throw of 14.29m. She'll be back in action on Sunday to compete in her signature event, the discus.
Conor Cusack launched a throw of 75.42m to secure the men's javelin title.
Fresh off representing Ireland at the European U-23 Championships in Bergen, Aoife O’Sullivan continued her impressive form by claiming senior gold in the women’s high jump with a leap of 1.75m. Meanwhile in the men’s event, rising star Conor Penney secured a first senior win with a best clearance of 2.10m.
Daphni Doulaptsi Teeuwen was touted as the main challenger to Saragh Buggy’s dominance of the women’s triple jump and duly delivered with a best leap of 13.05m securing top spot, ahead of Buggy's 12.74m.
A host of heats also took place today with star names including Sarah Healy (800m in 2:03.63), Mark English (800m in 1:48.92), Andrew Coscoran (1500m in 3:46.99), Chris O’Donnell (400m in 46.79), and Sophie Becker (400m in 53.25) all safely progressing.
Watch the National Athletics Championships on Sunday from 5pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
