All eyes on Rhasidat in Paris

ALL EYES will be on Rhasidat Adeleke this week as the Tallaght star takes to the track at the Paris Olympic Games.

A member of Tallaght Athletics Club, Rhasidat will compete in Round One of the 400m individual heats on Monday at 10.55am.

All going well and Rhasidat qualifies from Round One, she would then go forward to the semis on Wednesday evening at 7.45pm with the final taking place on Friday, August 9 at 7pm.

It’s still unsure whether Rhasidat will compete in the relays with the mixed relay heats on this Friday and the final the following day.

The team for the relays has not been named by Team Ireland. Another dilemma for Rhasidat is that the 4x400m heats take place also on Friday, August 9 with the final scheduled for the following day.

In the run up to the Olympics, the 21-year-old holds national athletics records for 100m, 200m and 400m indoors and outdoors, and only two weeks ago won her first Diamond League meeting in Monaco.

That was in the 400m, the discipline she will compete in at the Paris Olympics.

Adeleke has run the fourth fastest time in this year at 49.07 seconds, which was also her personal best.

And only last week Rhasidat set a season best’s time of 22.35 at the Diamond League in London but it was only good enough for a fifth placed finish in the 200m field.

“The four hundred metres is my race but I think I’ve a lot of potential in the one hundred and the two hundred.

“I kind of have unfinished business in those events.

“I’m looking forward to the next couple of years as a professional so I can dibble and dabble in different events”, said Rhasidat.