Sharlene Mawdsley will compete at National Indoor Athletics Championships

Sharlene Mawdsley is one of the stars of Irish athletics who will take to national competition this weekend as the 123.ie National Indoor Athletics Championships take centre stage at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena across Saturday and Sunday, February 28 and March 1.

Tipperary's Mawdsley will compete in the 400 metres.

She made an impressive start to her 2026 indoor campaign with a podium finish at the prestigious Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais in Liévin, in France.  

The Newport AC sprinter clocked 51.85 to finish third in the women’s 400 metres at the World Indoor Tour Gold event, recording the fastest time by an Irishwoman over the distance so far this year.

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Other big names competing in this weekend's championships include Kate O’Connor (long jump/60 metres hurdles), Mark English (800 metres), Sarah Lavin (60 metres hurdles), Andrew Coscoran (3,000 metres/1,500 metres) and recent 60 metres record-breaker Bori Akinola (60 metres). 

In a first for the National Indoor Championships, Virgin Media will provide a live two-hour broadcast on Virgin Media 2 from 2.30pm to 4.30pm on Sunday - a major milestone for the sport that reflects the growing national interest in Irish athletics.

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Tickets for Sunday are already sold out and spectators should not travel to the venue without a ticket. A limited number of tickets for Saturday are still available, with both days of competition being streamed fully on the Athletics Ireland YouTube Channel.

The action gets underway from 12pm on Saturday, with a second helping also taking place on Sunday from 11.30am.