Adeleke cruises into European Championship final
Tallaght’s Rhasidat Adeleke comfortably booked her place in tomorrow’s Women’s 100m final at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tallinn with a brace of impressive performances earlier today, reports Daire Walsh.
In this morning’s heat in the Estonian capital, the former Presentation Community College, Terenure student claimed top spot in a time of 11.37.
This was just shy of her seasonal best (11.31) and with Great Britain’s Eve Wright providing the closest challenge at 11.72, it was plain to see that Adeleke meant business.
Whereas she raced out of the blocks in this heat, a more measured approach was required in this afternoon’s semi-final.
The declaration of a false start to the race – which didn’t lead to a penalty for any of the competitors – had the potential to upset her rhythm, but she eventually hit her stride in impressive fashion.
Her final time of 11.38 earned her pole position for the second race in succession, ahead of Netherlands sprinter N’ketia Seedo – who clocked in at a respectable 11.57.
Ranked as the top U20 runner on the continent, the fact Adeleke is edging so close to her seasonal best bodes well for tomorrow’s 100m showpiece.
This is set to get underway at 3.20pm on Friday in Tallinn, roughly 10 minutes after the Men’s 100m final has reached its conclusion.
A former member of Tallaght Athletics Club on the Greenhills Road (where Adeleke first shot to prominence), UCD athlete Israel Olatunde was desperately unfortunate to miss out on a spot in the latter decider.
Recently-anointed as the fastest man in Ireland, Olatunde ran a superb time of 10.51 in the 100m semi-final this afternoon.
This earned him third-place behind Toby Makoyawo of Great Britain (10.26) and Turkey’s Umut Uysal (10.38), but his finishing time put him marginally out of reach of a non-automatic qualifying position.
It did, however, usurp the 10.76 he registered in this morning’s heat and the national senior champion can certainly reflect positively on his displays in this division during the course of the day.
