Ireland's Rhasidat Adeleke powers into world 400m final
QUALIFIED: Rhasidat Adeleke of Ireland crosses the finish line to qualify for the women's 400m final during day three of the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
This had long seemed her destiny, and now it’s her reality. Rhasidat Adeleke will line up for the world 400m final on Wednesday after finishing second in her semi-final in Budapest on Monday night, a race won by Marileidy Paulino in 49.54.
Adeleke’s time of 49.87 was a big step forward from the 50.80 she ran in Sunday’s heats, comfortable and all as that had been. The Tallaght sprinter becomes the first Irish sprint finalist at the World Championships for 14 years – since David Gillick and Derval O’Rourke in Berlin 2009.
Drawn in lane five, Adeleke got by far the biggest cheer of the eight athletes when introduced, the droves of Irish fans rising and waving their tricolours. She smiled a brief smile, then went straight back to full-focus mode. Adeleke had coasted through the opening 200m in her heat a day earlier and while she rocketed from the blocks here, she then settled in down the back straight – a little too much. Her coach, Edrick Floreal, instructed her to get out hard. Adeleke didn’t exactly do that.
“I was probably just too comfortable, but I’ll fix it for the final,” she said. “There’ll be a tweak, I had a lot of energy at the end, it’s really just distributing it properly.” Around the final turn, she had significant ground to make up on Paulino and Belgium’s Cynthia Bolingo, but she dug in, reeling in Bolingo midway up the home straight and holding her off to take the second automatic spot in Wednesday’s final.
“I've come to know how to negotiate my way, if I'm in trouble, I know what I can do,” she said. “I went too slow in the first 200, but I trusted my strengths from my training, and I knew that regardless of my position, we'd be able to make it.”
Adeleke missed the final by one place on her World Championships debut last July, finishing ninth, but climbed to a new level since making the one-lap race her focus this year, clocking a championship record of 49.20 to win the NCAA title in June.
She had been below her best on the sole 400m race she ran since turning professional in July, clocking 49.99 in Monaco, and after her heat here on Sunday she said: “We’re at that point of the season there’s a lot of fatigue, my body had some niggles I needed to get right before coming out here,” she said.
There is little doubt that she is aware of the expectation building at home. “I don't want to put too much pressure, I know what I can do,” she said. “And you know, I'm just really, really grateful that I'm able to do what I love. It was a good race and I know I've a good position for the final.”
The final takes place at 8.35pm Irish time on Wednesday, with Adeleke the fifth fastest qualifier. She has been drawn in lane four, the medal favourites all outside her. It’s a race for which Adeleke – and her growing fanbase back in Ireland – has been waiting a long time. And now, a week shy of her 21st birthday, she has her chance.
The big lesson for Wednesday? “I need to find my 200m speed, but that’s something I’m going to use,” she said. “I’m definitely getting back in shape. I feel like I can compete against the best, and it’s anyone’s medal.”
Elsewhere, Sharlene Mawdsley brought the curtain down on a fine championships by finishing eighth in her semi-final in 51.78, having helped the mixed relay to sixth two days earlier.
Ciara Mageean will take her shot at a first global medal on Tuesday night, the 31-year-old lining up for the 1500m final against a field of astonishing depth. “It will take a PB to do it, but I feel ready,” she said after her semi-final.
The women’s 100m final was won by Sha’Carri Richardson of USA, the 23-year-old Texan powering down the outside to claim her first major title in 10.65. Her teammate Grant Holloway claimed the men’s 110m hurdles title in 12.96.
5.40pm: Sarah Lavin, women’s 100m hurdles heats
6.28pm: Mark English, men’s 800m heats
6.36pm: John Fitzsimons, men’s 800m heats
8.31pm: Ciara Mageean, women’s 1500m final
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