Can Adeleke and Mageean bridge Ireland's wait for world medal? Definitely maybe

The pair lead an Irish team to the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.

NEXT GEN: Irish star Rhasidat Adeleke. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

For the Irish at this year’s World Athletics Championships, success will be measured in many ways. For some it’s a medal. For others, it’s a personal best, maybe scraping past the first round. So it is when competing in the most global sport, with 2,100 athletes from 202 nations descending on the National Athletics Centre in Budapest over the next nine days.

For Rhasidat Adeleke or Ciara Mageean, not making the final will feel like a failure and, given the seasons they’ve had, anything less than a podium finish might leave them harbouring what-ifs. Crunch the numbers, scan their rivals and even without any green-tinted lens, both look capable of a podium finish. Thing is, so are several of their rivals.