Another record broken, another barrier smashed and as if a shred of doubt remained, Rhasidat Adeleke has now raced her way to the top of the world class sprint and the magical 50 second 400 meter barrier with another amazing performance in just her second second in the outdoor race of the season.
It’s the barrier that often decides medals on the world and Olympic stages and the 20-year-old from Dublin is undoubtedly at that level now. Adeleke clocked a brilliant 49.90 seconds, effectively beating half a second of her own Irish indoor record just over a month ago. Another small step, one big leap.
[ Rhasidat Adeleke smashes another Irish record as she runs world-class 200m time ]
Adeleke, who competed in the Tom Jones Memorial in Florida, finished second behind Britton Wilson, the American college record holder, who clocked 49.51 seconds after already breaking the 50-second mark indoors.
It also comes less than 24 hours after she broke her own Irish 200m record, everything about her progress in her third year at the University of Texas at Austin is moving at breakneck speed. Wilson, who runs for the University of Arkansas, is far more experienced in the one-lap event as this is Adeleke’s first full season of training for the longer sprint event.
After setting her outdoor best of 50.53 in the finals of the European Championships in Munich last summer, she improved twice indoors by running 50.33 in Albuquerque before competing at the NCAA Championships the second weekend in March. Championships was second behind Wilson.
Indeed, fast becoming a per-race record for Adeleke, on Friday night she took another big chunk of her own Irish 200m mark – both indoors and outdoors – with a world-class 22.34s after breaking away from her now chosen distance had withdrawn.
[ Rhasidat Adeleke: ‘I just want to work harder, run faster, that’s what drives me on’ ]
With that, Adeleke improved on her indoor mark of 22.52 she ran at altitude in Albuquerque in January, an Irish indoor and absolute record – the previous fastest mark outdoors was the 22.59 she ran in April last year ran. There was a tailwind of 1.8 m/s, within the 2. m/s allowable, but Adeleke sped up the course and also finished behind her University of Texas teammate Julien Alfred, who won in 21.91 national record for her country, St. Lucia.
In doing so she has broken an Irish record five times this year, already improved her own 200m indoor mark and has now broken her 400m indoor mark three times, running 50.33 indoors.
At the Texas Relays two weeks ago, Adeleke was part of four relay quartets that all won and set NCAA records in the 4×100, 4×200 and sprint medley before anchoring the 4×400 with a hand-timed split of 49.2 seconds.
With her 49.90s on Saturday, the rest of the outdoor season can’t come fast enough, all leading up to the World Championships in Budapest in August.
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