Ireland’s newest sprint sensation Rhasidat Adeleke is still learning how to race the 400m even though the 20-year-old has run the third fastest time indoors in the world this year and the 14th fastest ever.

Having broken her own Irish 400m record in her first race of the season with an eye-popping 50.45 she smashed that record with a sensational 50.33 on her way to victory at the Big 12 Championships in Lubbock, Texas last weekend.

For an hour it was a new NCAA record and the second fastest time in the world this year bettered only by the Netherlands’ Femke Bol’s world indoor record of 49.26.

But later a new NACC record was set by Talitha Diggs when she ran 50.15 which is also an American record.

But the bottom line is that Adeleke has been elevated to world class status in the space of a couple of weeks. She acknowledges she is surprised at how fast she is running.

"Yeah, absolutely. When I opened up with 50.45 I was absolutely shook. I honestly couldn't believe it," she said.

Record-breaking Irish sprinter, Rhasidat Adeleke, who has today been announced as the newest sporting ambassador of Allianz Insurance. Photo: Inpho/Dan Sheridan

Her goal time for the indoor season was a more modest 50.8 which she thought was as a ‘far-fetched dream.’

"Then to see that I've achieved it in my opener and then again at Big 12 championships, it was just such a surprise, I was just so grateful to look back at it.

"He (her coach, Edrick Floréal) told me that when he saw me put down 50.8, he was like, 'you're going to smash that' and I didn't see it at the time. But he really knows what he's talking about and he kind of writes the programme for us to achieve these times.

"So when he tells us something, it might seem far-fetched, but you have to believe it because he definitely knows what he's talking about.”

Neither of Rhasidat’s two 400m races have gone to plan, she revealed.

“My coach will tell me to get out, in the 400m that’s the first lap indoors, and I’d be scared to get out, because I’m scared to die. He’s like ‘no, you’re strong enough, if you get out, you’ll be able to hold the momentum’, and I didn’t realise that until my recent races,” she said.

“So my first opener, I didn’t get out as fast as I was supposed to, and also in the second race too, but I’m now understanding, if I get out faster, my second lap will also be faster, or the same, regardless, because I’d holding the momentum from the first lap.

“So things like that I’m trying to understand, what the speed of the first lap is supposed to feel like, all those minor things, so I’m still not a guru at the event, but I am kind of learning.”

She believes that she will run faster before the end of the indoor season.

“Every race I ran, there’s always been something wrong and I always feel there’s a little more there. I’ve always been alone in the 400, even though I’ve run it a short period of time, I’ve never really been able to take it out on my own,” Adeleke said.

“The fact I’ve got someone pushing me, I have so much more to give. I opened up with 50.4 and it was a big drop. Even though I do run 50.4 and 50.3, I don’t feel like I was at max capacity. I finish the race and I feel fine, so I definitely do feel there’s a big jump to come.”

Last year Adeleke – who is a student at the University of Texas in Austin, set Irish records at 60m, 200m, 300m and 400m, finished ninth at the World championships and fifth in the European final.

She began the 2023 season by breaking with her own Irish indoor record with 22.52 before her two sensational 400m runs last month.

She is now focussing on the NCAA Indoor championship in Albuquerque on the weekend after next which means she misses this weekend’s European Indoor championships in Budapest. She will be one of the favourites in the 400m at the NCAA’s

Further down the line there are the World outdoor athletic championships in Budapest this summer and the Paris Olympic Games in 2024 but Rhasidat indicated that her next outing in an Irish singlet is likely to be at the European Under-23 championships in Finland this July.