Sharlene Mawdsley says defeating Austrian sprinter Susanne Gogl-Walli was the perfect way to round off her season in September.
It was a rollercoaster year for the Tipperary athlete having experienced thrilling highs and crushing lows, with rival Gogl-Walli at the forefront throughout.
The highlight was the European championships in Barcelona where she won mixed (gold) and non-mixed (silver) 4x400m relay medals as well as qualifying for her first major individual final.
Mawdsley finished 8th in the 400m final but her storming anchor legs were crucial to the success of both relay teams, giving athletics a huge boost throughout the country.
But there were also lows.
Mawdsley made a breakthrough at the World Indoor championships in Glasgow in March, but ultimately her championships ended in heartbreak as she was cruelly denied a place in the final.
The Newport AC 400m runner earned an automatic berth in the final, only to be disqualified in the aftermath of the semi-final on the grounds of obstructing Gogl-Walli.
The judgement was deemed harsh by many athletics commentators but Gogl-Walli advanced to the final in her place.
The Austrian also defeated Mawdsley in their individual heat at the Paris Olympics, crossing the line 0.04 seconds ahead at the Stade de France.
The 26-year-old Irish woman battled back to run a brilliant leg as Ireland's women's relay team finished an agonising fourth at the Games.
It was a moral victory of sorts but Mawdsley was delighted to end her season with an actual victory at the Galà dei Castelli meeting in Switzerland.
Super Sharlene Mawdsley 💚
A signature late surge saw her beat top names Susanne Gogl-Walli and Lieke Klaver in Switzerland! 👏pic.twitter.com/Zv88mo6njJ
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) September 9, 2024
A strong finish up the home straight propelled Mawdsley past her rivals Lieke Klaver and Gogl-Walli, book-ending her season with a win and she spoke recently about how much that meant to her.
“It had come to a stage where I was kind of sensitive after World Indoors," she told the Independent.
"When Susanne beat me in the Olympics, she got to go to the semi-final and I didn’t.
"I was like, I just have to make peace because she was living in my head rent-free at this stage."
"I think mentally it just took a huge weight off my shoulders because I felt at one point that I was racing one girl all the time. I needed that out of my head.
“I even came home [after the win] and my mam had got me a cake and it said: you did it!
"So it was kind of big for anyone who knows me, they just knew how much it meant for me to be able to do it.”
