Preview: Star-studded lineup expected at National Indoor Championships

The first national athletics championship of 2025 is imminent and represents one of the few opportunities where Ireland's greatest and best are under one roof on the island, even without Rhasidat Adeleke, who is choosing to forgo most of the indoor season.

With six records broken this season so far, the short track edition of the national championships will see high calibre performances, especially in the middle and long-distance events, where all of those records have emerged from.

Sunday is the final day for qualification to next month's European Indoor Championships.

With the new ranking systems in athletics, national championships carry additional weight and a positive performance could be the difference for those on the fringes in securing their qualification.

There is limited seating at the National Sports Campus venue, tuning in to Athletics Ireland’s live stream on YouTube will be the only way to catch the scintillating finals on the now sold-out Sunday.

Women’s 400m

Olympian Sharlene Mawdsley is the headline act for the championships. Likely to contest the women's 400m, the Tipp woman is also entered in the one-lap indoor event but stated her intention to "defend her indoor title" at a pre-European indoor Championship event on Tuesday.

At last year's edition of the national indoors, Mawdsley won the 400m in a time of 52.04 seconds, a world-class time that catapulted her to a final place at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow a month later, where she was subsequently disqualified for 'jostling'.

Saturday's 400m heats will be the first time the 26-year-old has raced in Ireland since February last year and represents a rare opportunity to see Mawdsley compete on the island despite proving her dedication to the