Rhasidat Adeleke

Rhasidat Adeleke ( ; born 29 August 2002) is an Irish sprinter. She won the 100 metres / 200 m double at the 2021 European Athletics Under-20 Championships.

Adeleke was the first Irish woman to break the 50-second barrier in the 400 metres. She holds six Irish national records (60 m indoors, 200 m indoors and out, 300 m indoors and 400 m indoors and out).

Background

Adeleke was born in Dublin in 2002 to Nigerian parents Ade and Prince Adeleke. She is a member of Tallaght Athletic Club.

Career

In 2017, 14-year-old Rhasidat Adeleke won a junior sprint double at the Irish Schools championships for Presentation College, Terenure. A month later, she claimed the silver medal in the 200 metres at the European Youth Olympic Festival held in Győr, Hungary. The following year, she took gold in the event at the European Under-18 Championships staged also in Győr, and a silver at the World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland competing in the heats of the 4 x 100 m relay with Molly Scott, Gina Akpe-Moses, Ciara Neville and Patience Jumbo-Gula. In 2019, she claimed the 100 m / 200 m sprint double at the European Youth Olympic Festival held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

In 2021, still 18, Adeleke won her first senior national outdoor title followed by winning the 100 m / 200 m sprint double at the European U20 Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, the first women’s sprint double at these championships since 2011. That same year, she took up a scholarship with the University of Texas at Austin and competed in the US Collegiate Indoor Championships.

In August 2022, she placed fifth in the 400 metres final at the European Championships held in Munich, setting an Irish record of 50.53 seconds.

2023

On 21 January, the 20-year-old lowered her own national indoor 200 m record with a world-leading time of 22.52 s, the fastest time by a European woman since 2003, at the Martin Luther King Invitational in Albuquerque, New Mexico (at altitude). On 4 February, at the UNM Collegiate Classic also in Albuquerque, she set a new Irish indoor record in the 400 m with a world-leading 50.45 s, the fastest time in history indoors or out by an Irish woman. Adeleke improved this mark to 50.33 s the same month, on 25 February at the Big 12 Indoor Championships in Lubbock, Texas, breaking the NCAA record and putting her 14th on the respective world all-time list. The following month, she ran 50.45 s at the NCCA Indoors final, again in Albuquerque, earning the silver medal to become the first Irish athlete to win a medal in an NCAA sprint event. She picked up a second silver just one hour later, anchoring the Texas women's 4 × 400 m relay.

Adeleke opened her outdoor season at the Texas Relays in Austin on 31 March. She split 21.7 s in the second 200 m leg of the Texas sprint medley relay, which shattered the collegiate record with a time of 3:36.10. The following day, she ran in three other Texas relays. 4 × 100 m and 4 × 200 m teams set NCAA records with times of 42.00 s and 1:28.05 respectively, while 4 x 400 m team anchored by Adeleke won the competition. On 14 and 15 April, Adeleke obliterated both her national 200 m and 400 m records clocking 22.34 and 49.90 seconds respectively at the Tom Jones Memorial in Gainesville, Florida, becoming the first Irish woman to break the 50-second barrier at the longer distance. A month later, she was part of the relay team that lowered Texas 4 × 100 m collegiate record with a time of 41.89 s at the Big 12 Championships in Norman, Oklahoma. On 27 May, she further lowered her 400 m Irish record to 49.54 s at the NCCA Western Regionals in Sacramento, California. On 8 June, she was part of the Texas 4 X 100 m relay team that again broke the NCCA record in the semi-finals at the NCCA Division 1 National Outdoor Championships in Austin, Texas in 41.55 s. At the same meet on 10 June she again lowered her national record over 400 m to 49.20 s to take gold in the final, having earlier taken gold as part of the Texas quartet that won the 4 X 100 m relay.

On 16 July, Adeleke announced that she would be foregoing her final year of eligibility at the University of Texas and would instead be turning professional. Adeleke ran her first race as a professional, representing Nike, at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial 2023, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting at Szekesfehervar, Hungary on 18 July. She finished second in the 200 m in 22.36 (just outside her Irish record of 22.34), behind Shericka Jackson of Jamaica, who ran 22.02. Adeleke made her Wanda Diamond League debut on 21 July at the Stade Louis II in Monaco. She finished fourth in the 400 metres in 49.99s, in a race won by Poland's Natalia Kaczmarek, who finished in 49.63s. On 20 August, Adeleke won her heat in the 400m in 50.8 s at the World Athletic Championships in Budapest, Hungary. On 21 August, she finished second in her semi-final in 49.87 behind the Olympic silver medalist Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic, registering the fourth fastest time overall. In the final on 23 August, Adeleke finished fourth in 50.13s, behind Paulino (48.76), Poland's Natalia Kaczmarek (49.57) and Sada Williams of Barbados (49.60).

2024

In her first race the 2024 indoor season on January 13 in Louisville, Kentucky, Adeleke ran a split of 51.74 seconds in the second leg of the 4 X 400m relay, as part of an elite quartet, also comprising Diana Asher-Smith of the UK (53.57, first leg), Julien Alford of St Lucien (52.47, third leg) and Lanae-Tava Thomas of the United States who did not finish.

On January 20, Adeleke broker her Irish indoor 60m and 200m records at the Dr Martin Luther King Jr Collegiate Invitational in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She won the 60m in 7.15s ahead of fellow UT-Austin student Micayah Holland, and finished second over 200m one hour later in 22.49, behind training partner Julien Alford, who won in 22.28.

Achievements

International competitions

¹Time from the heats; Adeleke was replaced in the final.

National and

NCAA titles

* Irish Athletics Championships
** 100 metres: 2021, 2022
* Irish Indoor Athletics Championships
** 200 metres: 2019
* NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships
** 4 x 100 m relay: 2022
*
4 X 100 m relay: 2023
*
400 m: 2023

References

External links

*

Rhasidat Adeleke
at Texas Longhorns
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adeleke, Rhasidat
Living people
2002 births
Black Irish sportspeople
Irish female sprinters
Irish people of Nigerian descent
Sportspeople from South Dublin (county)
Athletes from County Dublin
21st-century Irish women
Texas Longhorns women's track and field athletes