By now it’s an almost weekly occurrence, but the frequency of her brilliance shouldn’t detract from its force.
fter obliterating two Irish records in less than 24 hours, Rhasidat Adeleke has edged ever closer to being what most athletics anoraks now consider her: a genuine contender at world and Olympic level.
At the Tom Jones Memorial meeting in Florida, the 20-year-old Dubliner obliterated the previous best Irish marks for both 200m and 400m, taking the national records to a place they’ve never been.
The latest remarkable run by the Tallaght native arrived on Saturday afternoon, Adeleke clocking 49.90 in the 400m to finish second behind Britton Wilson, who had beaten her to gold at the NCAA Indoor Championships last month.
Wilson clocked 49.51, a world lead, with Adeleke’s time the second quickest in the world this year. It was a time that would have won Adeleke silver at the World Championships in Oregon last year and would have placed her fourth in the Tokyo Olympic final. The previous Irish record was the 50.33 that she ran indoors at altitude in February.
On Friday evening, Adeleke smashed her own Irish 200m record, clocking a blazing 22.34 with the aid of a 1.8m/s tailwind. That was just below the allowable limit of 2.0, with Adeleke finishing third in her section behind Julien Alfred, her teammate at the University of Texas, who clocked a world lead of 21.91. Adeleke’s previous best was the Irish record of 22.52 she ran at altitude in Albuquerque back in January, an indoor and outright Irish record, while the previous quickest time outdoors by an Irishwoman was the 22.59 she ran in April last year.
It means Adeleke is now a whopping 0.65 quicker than any Irishwoman in history over the distance, with Phil Healy the only other Irish female sprinter to have broken 23 seconds in legal conditions with the former Irish record of 22.99.
