Rhasidat Adeleke opens individual season with fourth-place finish

Adeleke’s Irish record of 22.34 was run at the same meeting two years ago, though she did have a tailwind of 1.8m/s that day compared to virtually still conditions (+0.2m/s) for her race on Friday. Pic: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

Rhasidat Adeleke ran her first individual race of the season at the Tom Jones Memorial meeting in Gainesville, Florida on Friday, clocking 22.57 to finish fourth in a loaded 200m field.

The race was won in 21.88 by Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred, who trains with Adeleke, and included two other 200m finalists from the Paris Olympics. 

Adeleke’s Irish record of 22.34 was run at the same meeting two years ago, though she did have a tailwind of 1.8m/s that day compared to virtually still conditions (+0.2m/s) for her race on Friday. 

Adeleke’s time was an automatic qualifier for the World Championships in Tokyo.

The 22-year-old bypassed both the European and World Indoor Championships last month, keen to build a big foundation in training as she looks towards the Tokyo World Championships in September, having finished fourth in the last two global outdoor finals. 

She raced just once during the indoor season, clocking 1:30.30 for 600m in Clemson in February.

Her outdoor plans will take in the Shanghai Diamond League on May 3, where she’s entered in the 200m, and the World Relays in Guangzhou, China on May 10-11, where Adeleke is part of the Irish squads for both the mixed 4x400m and women’s 4x400m. 

A top-14 finish in either would secure their spot in Tokyo.

Elsewhere, Ava O’Connor broke the Irish U-23 record for the 3000m steeplechase by clocking 9:46.22 at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California, and she returned a day later to set a 1500m PB of 4:15.31. 

Sophie O’Sullivan, the reigning European U-23 1500m champion and Paris Olympian, clocked 2:00.61 for 800m and 4:08.69 for 1500m at the same meeting, while Lauren Roy set a Northern Irish 200m record of 23.27. 

Laura Nicholson also made a big breakthrough at the Wake Forest Invitational, clocking 4:07.71 for 1500m to move eighth on the Irish all-time list.