A fourth successive personal best by Sharlene Mawdsley brought her ever closer to the 50-second barrier over 400 metres as the Tipperary athlete clocked 50.06 seconds when finishing in fifth place in her Diamond League debut in Paris on Sunday evening.Lining up against some of the best 400m runners in the world, Mawdsley once again blasted out of the blocks from lane two, and was holding her own down the back straight.Coming around the final bend, Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic showed all of her dominance when kicking on to take the win in 48.48, smashing the Diamond League record in the process.World Indoor champion Lurdes Gloria Manuel of the Czech Republic took second in 49.37 ahead of Jamaica’s Stacey Ann Williams (49.51), with Dutch star Lieke Klaver fourth in 49.97, with Mawdsley again just short of the 50-second barrier.Last Sunday, Mawdsley came within a few strides of winning the biggest 400m race of her career when finishing second at the FBK Games in Hengelo, running another personal best there of 50.14 seconds.Her 50.06 does move her to fifth on the European rankings this year. Mawdsley turns 28 on August 10th, the same day the European Championships start in Birmingham, and her potential to challenge for a medal is now clear. Twice in the space of a week last month Mawdsley lowered her best time in the event, first running 50.52 in Italy, before bringing that down to 50.17 in Brussels.Rhasidat Adeleke is set for her first 400m of the season at the Eugene Diamond League next Saturday, still needing to run a qualifying time for the European Championships.Sarah Healy also lined up in a similarly star-studded women’s 1,500m, her first race over the distance this summer, but she drifted off the leaders around the last lap and had to settle for 11th in 4:01.50. Taking the convincing win there was Britain’s Georgia Hunter-Bell, Healy’s training partner clocking 3:55.63.The men’s 1,500m proved equally fast, with Australia’s 20-year-old Cameron Myers underlining his progress this season with victory in a lifetime best and Oceanic record of 3:28.00. Andrew Coscoran found that pace a little too hot to handle and although still in contention at 800m, he drifted off the back from there and ended up 15th in 3:46.91.[ Ken Early: My friend is right, TV replays from the World Cup are different this timeOpens in new window ]Audrey Werro from Switzerland provided another of the evening highlights with her latest bid to crack the women’s 800m world record of 1:53.28, set by Jarmila Kratochvilova back in 1983. Werro, however, again fell short, while still clocking a Diamond League record of 1:53.80. Former Dutch 400m specialist Femke Broeders-Bol also improved her best to 1:55.60 to finish second.Collen Kebinatshipi from Botswana also broke the Diamond League record when winning the men’s 400m in 43.54 seconds.Meanwhile, Nicola Tuthill took the win in the hammer at the Czeslaw Cybulski Memorial meeting in Poznan, Poland. The 22-year-old from Cork improved her lifetime best by 25cm with a winning distance of 72.73m. Anita Wlodarczyk from Poland, the world record holder and a three-time Olympic champion, finished second, with her best on the day of 71.53m.