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USA Today
27-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
The best of Olympic track and field gold medalist Lieke Klaver in images
The best of Olympic track and field gold medalist Lieke Klaver in images Klaver hasn't skipped a beat since her impressive run during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, where the talented sprinter helped Team Netherlands take home a gold medal in the mixed 4×400m relay and a silver medal in the women's 4×400m relay. Now gearing up for the summer 2025 season, Klaver is back on the track and turning heads, having already won a gold medal at the European Indoor Championships. Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver Dutch track and field star Lieke Klaver
Extra.ie
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Extra.ie
Olympic sprinter Sharlene Mawdsley hard launches relationship with GAA star
Sharlene Mawdsley beamed alongside Tipperary GAA star Michael Breen following the Premier county's win over Waterford during the weekend. Tipperary hosted Waterford at Semple Stadium on Sunday, winning on a score-line of 1-30 to 1-21. Among the 28,758 attendees was Olympic runner Sharlene Mawdsley who appeared to 'hard launch' her relationship with Tipperary corner-back, Michael Breen. The 26-year-old shared a picture alongside Michael to Instagram on Sunday evening, captioning the sweet snap: 'Tippin' on.' Friends and followers took to the comments delighted with the snap, with Michael cheekily commenting: 'Any tag nah?' before sharing the picture to his Instagram Story. 'This fan was following me around all day,' he teased. Among the 28,758 attendees was Olympic runner Sharlene Mawdsley who appeared to 'hard launch' her relationship with Tipperary corner-back, Michael Breen. Pic: Michael Breen via Sharlene Mawdsley/ Instagram Another person commented: 'Love the hard launch Sharlene,' while a third added: 'Awwwwwww shar about time.' Earlier this year, the Newport native was forced to bow out of the European Indoor Championships due to injury. Sharlene had been part of the mixed 4x400m team that raced in Apeldoorn but couldn't compete in the women's 400m race due to issues with her leg. In March, Sharlene confirmed that while she'll be out of action for awhile her injury doesn't appear to be anything too serious. Pic: INPHO/Tocko Mackic In March, Sharlene confirmed that while she'll be out of action for awhile her injury doesn't appear to be anything too serious. 'A little update as my DMs have been crazy (and lovely) asking about my leg,' she posted on Instagram, 'I was in for a scan on my hamstring yesterday. I'm blessed with the team I have around me. 'I have a small tear in my Tendon of biceps femoris (double Dutch to me). I am already starting my rehab program with my team and will hopefully be back running in the next couple of weeks.' The main goal for the Irishwoman awaits in September of this year when the World Athletics Championships comes to Tokyo. And by the time the 400m star recovers from her current injury setback, she will be in a prime position to get going as the outdoor athletics season begins once again.
Irish Times
23-04-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
World Athletics Championships in Tokyo to return to RTÉ for the first time this century
The World Athletics Championships will return to RTÉ television for the first time this century, the nine-day event taking place in Tokyo in September, and the biggest sporting stage in the world this year. About 2,000 athletes from some 200 countries will compete in the 20th edition of the championships, which take place from September 13th-21st – the second time Japan has hosted the event after Osaka in 2007, and Tokyo previously in 1991. The National Stadium, rebuilt for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will be the venue. RTÉ have not secured any television rights in Ireland since the 1999 World Athletics Championships in Seville, but this time the national broadcaster is set to schedule live coverage of each of the nine evening sessions in Tokyo, which take place between 10.30am and 2.30pm Irish time. There will also be studio analysis from Sonia O'Sullivan , Rob Heffernan and Derval O'Rourke, and it continues from RTÉ's extensive coverage of the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn last month, and the European Championships in Rome last June. READ MORE RTÉ did provide live coverage of the event throughout the 1990s, when O'Sullivan was at the peak on her running powers, including the 1997 World Championships in Athens, the last time RTÉ had full coverage, with studio analysis by Bill O'Herlihy with John Treacy and Eamonn Coghlan. For the 1999 championships in Seville, there was a 30-minute highlights package with commentary from Jimmy Magee. Virgin Media broadcast live coverage of the last World Athletics Championships in Budapest in August 2023, returning the event to Irish terrestrial television for the first time since Seville. After securing the Irish rights to the Diamond League last year, Virgin will again provide live coverage of the 15 meetings this summer, starting in Xiamen in China this Saturday. The second meeting in Shanghai on May 3rd is set to feature Rhasidat Adeleke , who will then lead the Irish team at the World Relays in Guangzhou in China, on May 10th-11th, where Adeleke is named in both the mixed 4x400m and women's 4x400m. The top 14 in each event in Guangzhou are automatic qualifiers for Tokyo. Six Irish athletes have already secured automatic qualifying times for Tokyo: Adeleke (200m/400m), Sharlene Mawdsley (400m), Sarah Healy and Sophie O'Sullivan (both 1,500m), Sarah Lavin (100m hurdles) and Andrew Coscoran (1,500m). The qualification cut-off date for most events is not until August 24th, at which point Ireland could have its largest number of qualifiers in World Athletics Championships history. The Tokyo schedule includes four morning sessions, reduced from previous championships, which take place in the early hours of the morning Irish time, but with the evening sessions featuring all the major finals.
Telegraph
21-04-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Amber Anning interview: The letter that inspired me to become world champion
Last month, in emotional scenes inside China's Nanjing Youth Olympic Sports Park, Amber Anning stood on top of the podium after a coming-of-age performance to win 400-metre gold at the World Indoor Championships. Her stunning triumph marked a number of firsts. It was Anning's first international title, in her first professional season after years grafting away on the American college scene, and she was Britain's first-ever female winner in the event. The stars had truly aligned. Two weeks earlier, Anning's confidence had been shredded after she was disqualified from the heats at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn for a lane infringement. Determined to avoid a repeat in Nanjing, she calmly recited a letter to herself before warming up. 'It was basically what I would say to the 'old Amber' and what I would say to her now,' says Anning. 'I wrote about all the sacrifices I'd made, all the events I'd missed socially, moving over to America and not wanting to feel disappointment after all the hard work I'd put in, wanting to hear the national anthem standing on the podium and going out to get what's mine. 'I wrote it at the Europeans but took the letter to the worlds and every time I read it, it put a smile on my face. It just reminded me that I had come so far and that I could go out there and achieve what I wanted to.' SHE'S DONE IT! 🥇 Great Britain's Amber Anning has won Women's 400m gold in dramatic style in Nanjing! #BBCAthletics #WorldIndoorChamps — BBC Sport (@BBCSport) March 22, 2025 Anning is speaking to Telegraph Sport from her United States training base in Arkansas, where she has returned to ready herself for the outdoor season. Unlike most emerging British talent, she made the bold decision to leave her Brighton-based family, aged 19, to make a track career for herself in the US. When she arrived at Louisiana State University on a scholarship in 2020, she was a small fish in a very big pond and began rubbing shoulders with some of the best 400m specialists in the world. Anning initially struggled to grapple with the huge cultural shock, before body-image insecurities struck. She quickly came across what it meant to be labelled 'Freshman 15' – the term is used to describe so-called weight-gain among college athletes in their first year, when they may put on up to 15 pounds. 'I wasn't running very fast and I was struggling with weight,' reflects Anning. 'The portions over here are really big and sometimes there'd be some points where I'd see myself in the mirror and just struggled with my look. 'I came to America looking really lean and really toned. When you're 18, 19, you're not developed as much in terms of lifting. During my first year, when I came back for Christmas, I don't think my parents even recognised me. 'A lot of comments were going around. I remember the team, some girls made comments that I was fat and overweight. It was mentally hard. When you're underperforming as well you've got all this stuff going on.' In her award-winning memoir Good For A Girl, Lauren Fleshman, a former middle-distance national champion, painted her own damning experience of the American college system as one severely lacking in female coaches needed to promote healthy practices. 'It can be hard to be a female sometimes,' says Anning. 'We deal with a lot, and it's about making sure that you have people around you who understand when you're on your period, you're not maybe going to be the best, like some people's are heavier than others.' Anning, though, insists her formative years in the States have been 'pretty positive' and insists the cut-throat nature of her training environments is inherently tied to her success on the track. At her maiden Olympics in Paris last year, she collected a pair of relay bronzes and finished a respectable fifth in the women's 400m final, but her career might have veered in a completely different direction after she experienced devastating loss as a teenager. The sudden passing of Anning's childhood coach, Lloyd Cowan, the esteemed trainer who masterminded Christine Ohuruogu's 2008 Olympic success in Beijing, turned Anning's world upside down. Cowan coached Anning as a junior and such was the profound influence the former Commonwealth sprint hurdler had on her career that Anning's mother helped set up the Lloyd Cowan Bursary as a way to honour his legacy after his unexpected death in 2021, which was believed to be related to Covid-19 complications. The initiative supports athletes who lack the financial means to stay in the sport. 'I was devastated,' says Anning. 'I was in a lot of disbelief. Lloyd was just such a figure and role model to me and someone who I thought would be here on this journey with me today, especially seeing what he'd done with Christine Ohuruogu. 'Those first two years [after his passing] I'd get teary even talking about it because he had such a profound impact on me. He was just such a charismatic man who had so much love and joy. At the worlds, on the podium, I was thinking, 'Lloyd, we got there! We can tick something off our list.'' How proud he would have been of his diligent pupil, who will not be parting with her lucky letter any time soon. 'It's staying in my backpack for now,' smiles Anning.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Anning relishes view from the top after world gold
Staring out from the 61st floor, overlooking Nanjing's glass-and-steel skyline, Amber Anning could finally get the highs and lows into perspective. Two weeks before, she had been reduced to tears after disqualification for a lane infringement at the European Indoor Championships in the Netherlands. Three hours before, she had redeemed herself on the global stage in China, becoming the first British woman to win the 400m world indoor title. And, a few minutes earlier, she had lost once more. "Me, [60m world indoor champion] Jeremiah Azu and [60m finalist] Amy Hunt went up to the top floor of our hotel that evening and played cards and a little bit of music," she told BBC Sport of the end of her World Indoors campaign. "That was our celebration. It was really chill, a nice little vibe. But I actually lost every game. I was so upset! "Jeremiah won twice or three times, Amy won, I just couldn't - but at least I won the most important thing, which was the 400m." So far in her short career, Anning has tended to turn up trumps when it matters. While still a student, she won a world bronze medal with Britain's 4x400m team in Budapest. In 2024, she reached the Olympic final in Paris, breaking the legendary Christine Ohuruogu's British record en route to fifth place before picking up another two relay medals. Now, still just 24, she is an individual global champion and one of British athletics' brightest stars. Her ascent to the upper reaches of the sport has been stylish. Last summer, she surged to a championship record when she won the British title, leaving Laviai Nielsen and Jodie Williams in her slipstream. In Nanjing, on the tight bends of an indoor track, she was bumped by American Alexis Holmes with 175m to go. Anning went wide, back and, potentially, out of contention. But she regathered herself, nibbled into Holmes' lead, powered off the last bend and beat her rival on the dip. Her winning margin was just three-hundredths of a second. "With 400m you have so much time to think, it isn't like 60m where you just get it done," she said. "When I got pushed I didn't panic, I said to myself 'this is not how you visualised it, this is not the execution you wanted, but what are you going to do before now and the end to get your gold medal?' "I had to wait and be patient, stay engaged, and stay in touch with her and then time it to perfection. "When I watched it back I realised that if I had made that move even a second earlier or later, I wasn't winning. It is crazy how it works." There is a beautiful symmetry to Anning succeeding Ohuruogu as the British record holder. Lloyd Cowan, who guided Ohuruogu 's career, also coached Anning as a junior. He died in January 2021 from complications arising from a Covid-19 infection, aged 58. "He was like my track dad," said Anning. "He just gave so much warmth, it felt so homely being around him. It was such a tough loss. "I thought I would be here with him today achieving this stuff and I know he is looking down on me now and I know he would be proud. "It feels like we kept the record in the family, which is really nice." Anning's mother sits alongside Ohuruogu on the board of the Lloyd Cowan Bursary, which helps bring down financial barriers for promising young athletes and coaches who might otherwise be lost to athletics. If Cowan shaped Anning's early potential, it has been sharpened in the United States. Encouraged by her mother, Anning left the UK for Louisiana State University as a teenager. The alma mater of pole vault world record holder Armand Duplantis and 100m world champion Sha'Carri Richardson took her out of her comfort zone. "I felt I was maybe a little too comfortable over here [in the UK] and I needed that extra push," she said. "Over there, you are seeing success in your face every day. "Because it is such a big place and big population, only a small percentage are going to make it, maybe they want it that much more because they know the chances are slimmer. "I needed to take on that mentality of wanting to be the best in the world because that is the level they are at over there." It took some time. Anning admits she was "not as disciplined as I should have been" initially at Louisiana and eventually transferred to Arkansas, which had a less lively party scene, as well as a world-class 400m group. Beating Holmes, the top-ranked American over 400m, to gold is testament to her grind. There may be other high-profile opponents to consider. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the all-conquering 400m hurdles superstar, clocked the seventh-fastest 400m time of 2024 in an invitational race in September and is thought to be racing on the flat in Michael Johnson's Grand Slam Track. The Netherlands' Femke Bol, another hurdles specialist, is the 400m indoor world record holder, having won gold in Glasgow last year. If they line up against her, Anning will be ready. "Let them come," she said. "I love competition, it makes everyone better, "That just means I have to do a little bit better, train harder and work out what I have to do to stay up there and on top." From the 61st floor and the top step of the podium alike, Anning likes the view.
