There were sufficient positives for Rhasidat Adeleke to take from her first individual race of the season, with her fourth-place finish over 200 metres at the Tom Jones Memorial meeting in Gainesville, Florida on Friday coming against three Olympic finalists in the event.
Adeleke’s time of 22.57 seconds, with a near negligible +0.2m/s tailwind, was off her Irish 200m record of 22.34 set at the same meeting in 2023, when the wind was +1.8m/s, and Adeleke was also coming off another record-breaking indoor season at the University of Texas.
Victory went to Julien Alfred from St Lucia, the Olympic 100m champion and Adeleke’s training partner in Texas, who ran 21.88 seconds, the fastest time in the world this year. Alfred also finished second in the 200m in Paris in a time of 22.08.
Favour Ofili from Nigeria, who was sixth in Paris, took second in 22.34, and Daryll Neita from Britain finished one place behind Adeleke, running 22.89, having finished fifth in the Olympics.
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Adeleke’s time of 22.57 was also an automatic qualifier for the World Championships in Tokyo in September, although the 22-year-old will be concentrating on the 400m there.
After skipping the European and World Indoor Championships, Adeleke did run the 4x400m at the Texas Relays at the end of last monthand is next set to race the 200m at the Shanghai Diamond League on May 3rd.
After that it’s on to the World Relays in Guangzhou in China, on May 10th-11th, where the Tallaght AC athlete is named in both the mixed 4x400m and women’s 4x400m. She played a central role in both those teams qualifying for Paris last summer. The top 14 in each event in Guangzhou are automatic qualifiers for Tokyo.
Israel Olatunde will also contest the 100m in Gainesville later on Saturday. The Dublin sprinter is now based in Florida where he’s been training in the group of Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles from the US.
Also in the US, Ava O’Connor broke the Irish under-23 record for the 3,000m steeplechase when running 9:46.22 at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California, later clocking a best of 4:15.31 in the 1,500m.
Sophie O’Sullivan clocked 2:00.61 for 800m at the same meeting, a B standard for Tokyo. She also ran 4:08.69 for 1,500m, while Lauren Roy set a Northern Irish 200m record of 23.27.
