Sharlene Mawdsley has withdrawn from the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham after failing to recover from a hamstring tear sustained at the Irish national championships last month. The Newport AC athlete was set to race the individual 400m and the women's 4x400m relay at the championships, which open on Monday and run through 16 August BBC Sport.

Mawdsley sustained the injury in the 200m at the National Championships at Santry on 25 July, a race won by Rhasidat Adeleke. Scans later revealed a tear in her hamstring. She said she had "pushed the limits" in an attempt to be fit for Birmingham, but the injury would not cooperate Irish Times.

In a statement released by Athletics Ireland, Mawdsley said she was "so sad" that she would not be making the start line RTÉ Sport. The withdrawal lands on a particularly poignant date: she turns 28 on the opening day of the championships.

This was shaping up to be the season of her career. Mawdsley had set four personal bests during 2026 before the injury struck TheJournal.ie. She was part of the Irish squad that won 4x400m relay silver at the European Championships in Rome two years ago, and last year she anchored the Irish mixed 4x400m team to gold at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn — the final leg runner who closes the race, the one trusted with the baton when the pressure is highest.

Mawdsley is not the only star missing from Birmingham. Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium, the multi-time Olympic heptathlon champion, also withdrew from the championships with a hamstring injury European Athletics.

For Ireland, the loss of Mawdsley weakens both the individual 400m and the relay picture. For the athlete herself, it is the cruelest kind of timing — a season of personal bests cut short by a muscle tear, and a birthday spent watching from the sidelines rather than racing on the track she had earned her place on.