Rhasidat Adeleke breaks two Irish records in Albuquerque

RECORD BREAKER: Two races, two Irish records, and with that Rhasidat Adeleke has signalled this could be one special year. Pic CreditL Morgan Treacy, Inpho.

Two races, two Irish records, and with that Rhasidat Adeleke has signalled this could be one special year.

On Saturday afternoon the 21-year-old Dubliner picked up where she left off in 2023, by taking Irish sprinting to a place it’s never been.

At the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Invitational in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she broke her Irish indoor 60m and 200m records, clocking 7.15 and 22.49. Her 7.15 to win the 60m brought her home well clear of Micayah Holland, a fellow student at the University of Texas.

It moved Adeleke second on the world top lists for 2024 and carved 0.02 off the 7.17 national record she ran at the NCAA Championships in 2022.

Less than an hour later, Adeleke was back on track for the 200m, lining up in the outside lane against NCAA champion Julien Alfred, her training partner in Texas. Alfred powered to victory in 22.28, with Adeleke’s 22.49 in second surpassing the 22.52 she ran at the same venue last year.

Albuquerque sits at an altitude of just over 5,000 feet (1600m), the thin air known to benefit sprinters, though given this was Adeleke’s individual season debut it’s likely there is far more to come.

At the age of just 21, she already holds Irish records at 60m, 200m, 300m and 400m indoors and at 200m, 300m and 400m outdoors. The 100m outdoor record is held by Sarah Lavin at 11.27. 

Adeleke opened her season by running a leg on a 4x400m relay in Louisville, Kentucky last week, clocking a 51.74-second split.

She has yet to decide whether to race at the World Indoors in Glasgow in March in what is her first indoor season running as a professional. If she chooses to compete, she would be a strong medal contender given her indoor PB of 50.33 would have won silver at the last edition in 2022.

Her coach, Edrick Floreal, said last month that it would depend on her form as the event approaches.

"If she has a chance to go to World Indoors and win a medal then yes, great," he said.

"If it’s not looking good, if she gets sick, then we scrap indoors and move on. It's completely up to: does this preparation help our chances in Paris? All that matters is getting a medal in Paris.” 

Elsewhere, Katie Bergin of Moyne AC was one of the standout performers at the 123.ie National U-20 and U-23 Indoor Championships on Saturday, taking gold in the U-20 women’s 60m in a PB of 7.62 before going on to claim the 200m in 24.54.

The U-20 men’s 1500m was billed as one of the races of the day and it didn’t disappoint with four athletes running under the championship record, led by Jack Fenlon of St. Abban’s in 3:51.75.

Tallaght look to have another sprint star in the making in Sean Aigboboh who stormed to gold in the U-20 men’s 60m in 6.84, equalling Israel Olatunde’s championship record.

Leevale’s Reece Ademola sailed to a championship record of 7.17m in the men’s U-23 long jump.