Initial déjà vu but still another Adeleke breakthrough in Diamond League final

The 22-year-old crossed the line fourth but Olympic silver medallist Salwa Eid Naser, who’d finished third in 50.64, was soon disqualified for a lane infringement.

Ireland's Rhasidat Adeleke. Picture: Francesco Scaccianoce/Getty Images

It wasn’t how she wanted to finish, a sense of déjà vu kicking in down the home straight as Rhasidat Adeleke struggled to keep pace with the world’s best, but in the end this was a solid way to close out another breakthrough season.

At the Diamond League final in Brussels on Friday night, the 22-year-old Dubliner clocked 50.96 to come home third in the 400m behind Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino (49.45) and USA’s Alexis Holmes (50.32). 

Adeleke crossed the line fourth, but Olympic silver medallist Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain, who’d finished third in 50.64, was disqualified for a lane infringement, upgrading Adeleke to third and netting her $7,000 (€6,300) in prize money.

On a cold night in the Belgian capital, fast times were never going to be on the table and Adeleke employed a strategy similar to the Olympic final. Despite having the best speed in the race, she got off to a conservative start and was just fifth through the opening 100m, covered in 12.22, and she then moved up to third by 200m, reached in 23.78.

She was still third at 300m, just inches behind Naser, but couldn’t match the leaders down the home straight and her last 50 metres showed undeniable signs of a long, exhausting season. 

While it was a performance – and a time – that she won’t be pleased with, a third-place finish in her debut at the Diamond League final caps another huge year for Adeleke, who looks well on track to claim individual medals at global level in the years ahead.

She smashed Irish records over 60m, 200m and 300m indoors and over 100m and 400m outdoors. In May, she helped Ireland to bronze medals in the mixed 4x400m at the World Relays and won silver in both the 400m and women’s 4x400m at the Europeans in June, along with gold in the mixed 4x400m. 

She was just 0.3 away from an individual medal at the Olympics, her frustration about that only heightened following another fourth-place finish in the women’s 4x400m, where she teamed up with Sophie Becker, Phil Healy and Sharlene Mawdsley to obliterate the Irish record, their time of 3:19.90 just 0.18 away from the medals.

Elsewhere in Brussels, Jakob Ingebrigtsen returned to winning ways in the 1500m, turning in a commanding performance to kick clear and take victory in 3:30.37. 

Olympic champion Julien Alfred and Dina Asher-Smith – who both train with Adeleke in Texas – went 1-2 in women’s 100m, clocking 10.88 and 10.92, with world champion Sha’Carri Richardson well off the pace, finishing eighth in 11.23. 

Mondo Duplantis remained a class apart in the men’s pole vault, soaring over a meeting record of 6.11m, while in the men’s 400m Britain’s Charlie Dobson sprang a surprise from an outer lane and swept to victory in 44.49.