Rhasidat Adeleke smashes Irish 400m record again at NCAA regionals

Sophie O’Sullivan unleashed a kick reminiscent of her mother, Sonia, to win in the women’s 1500m, meanwhile.

Sun, 28 May, 2023 - 12:09

Cathal Dennehy

Rhasidat Adeleke produced the best performance of her career to smash her own Irish 400m record at the NCAA West Regionals in Sacramento, California, on Saturday night, the 20-year-old Dubliner clocking 49.54.

That obliterated the Irish record of 49.90 that Adeleke ran in Florida last month. Adeleke won her section with ease but her time came up just shy of the 49.51 run in another section by Britton Wilson of Arkansas, who beat Adeleke to gold at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March.

Adeleke, a student at the University of Texas, has been on an Irish record rampage this year, lowering the 200m and 400m record multiple times, and this run – her sixth Irish record of the year – puts her third in the world over 400m this year. It would have placed her second in last year’s world 400m final and fourth in the last Olympic final.

There were other Irish successes at the same event through Sophie O’Sullivan, who came from behind to take victory in the women’s 1500m, the University of Washington student unleashing a kick reminiscent of her mother – Sonia O’Sullivan – to win in 4:08.06.

The 21-year-old was a European U-18 silver medallist over 800m back in 2018 and while her progress had stalled during her early years in Washington, she has emerged better than ever this season, hacking four seconds off her 1500m PB with her win on Saturday evening. Brian Fay was an impressive winner of his section of the men’s 5000m at the same event, the Dubliner clocking 13:24.71 to advance to next month’s NCAA Championships, which take place in Texas from 7-10 June.

Elsewhere, rising star Nick Griggs underlined his vast potential at the IFAM meeting in Oordegem , Belgium, on Saturday, the 18-year-old smashing Darragh McElhinney’s Irish U-20 5000m record of 13:54.10 with a time of 13:36.47. Griggs is building up for the European U-20 Championships in Israel in August, where he’s seeking to defend his title over 3000m.