Olympics 24: Tallaght sensation Rhasidat one of hottest prospects in the world
“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,” Reports Ken Doyle.
So says Tallaght’s Rhasidat Adeleke, one of the hottest prospects in world athletics right now as she prepares to chase Olympic glory in Paris.
National records have fallen like skittles in the last couple of years at the feet of Rhasidat’s prodigious talents, and she now holds the Irish records for all of the sprint distances. Her individual records include the 60 metres indoors at 7.17 seconds, the 100 metres at 11.13, the 200 at 22.34 and in her preferred event, the 400 metres she ran a time of 49.07 to win Silver at the European Championships in Rome last month, having previously become the first Irish woman to break the coveted 50 second barrier. She also holds records in both the women’s and mixed relays.
Like many of our top athletes, Rhasidat was scouted and recruited by the American collegiate system. She elected to become a ‘Texas Longhorn’ at the University of Texas in 2022 and made her mark immediately.
In 2022, her freshman year, she took gold at the prestigious NCAA Championships in the 100 metres relay, repeating that feat the following year.
Then in 2023, she took the individual gold at the NCAA finals, winning the 400 metres in a time of 49.20, beating the likes of Britton Wilson of the University of Arkansas who is a world champion relay runner. This victory made Rhasidat the first Irish athlete to win an outdoor gold medal at the NCAA Championships.
Rhasidat Adeleke of Ireland celebrates with her mother Adewumi after securing a silver medal in the 400m at the European Championships in Rome last month
2024 has been a landmark year for Rhasidat. In January, she broke the Irish indoor 60m and 200m records at the Martin Luther King Jr Collegiate Invitational in Alberquerque, New Mexico, with times of 7.15 and 22.49 respectively. She also broke the Irish 300m record at the Milrose games in New York the following month with a time of 36.42sec. Then in April she ran an incredible 100m in a time of 10.84sec. Sadly, a trailing wind of 3.5 metres per second meant that it didn’t count as a legal run and therefore isn’t in the record books, but she’s inching ever closer to that magical sub 11 second mark.
Rhasidat seems to be peaking at the right time, having competed at the National Championships in late June. The event, at the Morton Stadium in Santry proved to be surprisingly fruitful when she set her Irish record time of 11.13, in the 100 metres, a distance she admitted she hadn’t been focusing on as much in the run up to Paris.
If the world hadn’t been aware of Rhasidat’s talents before, they certainly were after the recent prestigious Diamond League meeting in Monaco.
At the Stade Louis II, Rhasidat breezed home in a time of 49.17, almost half a second quicker than the runner-up Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands, a likely rival at the Olympics.
Speaking afterwards, she said, “It felt really good, I’ve wanted a Diamond League win for a really long time. To have it here, in this beautiful stadium, I’m really grateful.”
Now a professional athlete running for Nike, Rhasidat goes into Paris 2024 as a live contender for individual and relay glory. At the tender age of twenty-one this could be the first of many Olympic and World campaigns but the form she is in at the moment suggests history once again beckons for the Tallaght star.
READ MORE: Olympics 24: Rhasidat is ‘inspiration’ to next generation of Tallaght AC athletes
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