Rhasidat Adeleke among three Irish in NCAA finals this weekend

NCAA: Rhasidat Adeleke coasted into the women’s 400m final, clocking 49.86 to win her heat with ease, the second quickest time of her career. Adeleke’s final takes place on Saturday night. File pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

It’s 17 years since Ireland had an individual track champion at the NCAA Division One Championships, an achievement that always signals medal-winning ability at international level. That was the case for Ireland’s last winner, Mary Cullen, the Sligo woman winning the NCAA 5000m title for Providence College in 2006 before going on to win bronze for Ireland at the European Indoors in 2009. It was also the case for Ireland’s last male champion, Alistair Cragg, who won a European Indoor title in 2005 a year after winning the NCAA 10,000m for the University of Arkansas.

But this weekend in Austin, Texas, Ireland has three strong challengers to emulate the feats of Cullen and Cragg. Two of them were in action on Thursday night, with Rhasidat Adeleke coasting into the women’s 400m final, clocking 49.86 to win her heat with ease, the second quickest time of her career. Adeleke’s final takes place on Saturday night at 9.02pm in Texas (3.02am Irish time), but the 20-year-old Dubliner will need the race of her life to claim gold.