Rhasidat Adeleke: Brightest light in Irish sport continues to set new standards

Rhasidat Adeleke after the mixed 4x400 metre relay final at the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas. Photograph: Warren Grant/Inphowon’t be 22 until late August, by which time she will know a lot more about herself and her ceiling. Put it like this – if, by then, her biggest achievement of 2024 remains one stellar week’s work at the World Relay Championships in the Bahamas last month, it’s going to all feel a bit underwhelming. She gets judged on a different curve to everyone else.

On to April then and it was an eye-catching 100 metres victory on her home track in Texas that screamed her name from the rooftops. Sarah Lavin’s Irish record is 11.27 – Adeleke ran a wind-assisted 10.84. Again, it doesn’t count as a record because the wind was so far beyond the legal strength . But even so, for Adeleke to drop down from her preferred distance of 400m and dip so far under 11 seconds was some going.

In the women’s 4x400 race an hour and a half later, she and Mawdsley combined with Sophie Becker and Phil Healy to set another Irish record. Despite it being her second race of the evening, Adeleke actually ran a faster leg to put Ireland in pole position. They won their heat and qualified for Paris.

This is the realm into which Adeleke has moved herself – and Irish athletics. She heads to Rome this weekend for thewhere all things seem possible. It is a long time since Ireland went to a major athletics championship with so many medal hopes – Adeleke, Sarah Lavin, Ciara Mageean, Sarah Healy, the relays, maybe even Barr or Mawdsley at a push. Everyone fighting their own corner and running their own race. But led by Adeleke, and the world of anticipation that surrounds her..

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