McLaughlin finished seventh for Northern Ireland in the 400 metres hurdles final at the
1986 Commonwealth Games, won the
1987 UK Championships and finished second behind
Sally Fleming at the 1987
WAAA Championships. McLaughlin's best season came in 1988. With a pre-season best of 57.48 secs in 1987, she ran 56.22 to win the second of her three
UK Championship titles in June 1988, improved her best to 56.09 in August 1988, when finishing second to
Sally Gunnell at the AAA Championships/Olympic trials, earning Olympic selection, and ended the season achieving a lifetime best of 55.91 in the semifinals at the
1988 Seoul Olympics in September. This performance ranked her second on the UK all-time list at that time, and still (as of 2018) ranks her 12th on the UK all-time list and remains the Northern Irish record. McLaughlin won her third consecutive
UK Championships title in 1989 and went on to finish fifth in the
1990 Commonwealth Games final in January 1990. ==International competitions==