Rhasidat Adeleke can show she's capable of 'something special'

The Dubliner will run for a place in the 400m Olympic final. 

SEMI-FINALIST: Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke winning her 400m heat on Monday. Picture: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Tonight there will be no hiding place, no shadow boxing, the Olympic 400m semi-finals certain to draw all the big medal contenders into finally showing their hand.

Three semi-finals that will illustrate in crisp quality how realistic a medal chance Rhasidat Adeleke truly has. The 21-year-old Dubliner will race the first of them, at 7.45pm Irish time, and only the top two secure automatic qualification to Friday’s final. Adeleke may not be ecstatic about her draw in lane eight, but given the potent quality in the other heats she will be relieved to have avoided her biggest three rivals in the race for gold: Marileidy Paulino of Dominican Republic, Nickisha Pryce of Jamaica and Natalia Kaczmarek of Poland.