“The European Juniors are a big deal, so to be able to dominate them was insane”

RHASIDAT Adeleke marked her start to 2021 with a bold and brave move to the US on an athletics scholarship with the University of Texas.

Less than eight months later, the Tallaght sprinter had two European Under 20 gold medals in the back pocket and the Irish senior 200m record to boot.

Add to that, a first National Senior title with victory in the 100m and a silver in the 200m, and it is easy to understand why so many people were left scratching their head as to why the Tallaght Athletic Club star had not been selected for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Still Adeleke insists she has managed to put behind her the disappointment of being overlooked for the Summer Games and is delighted with her progress and exploits in 2021.

The Echo caught up with their 2018 Sports Star of the Year to talk about her move to the US and life at the University of Texas, a phenomenal double in the European Under 20 Championships in Estonia, missing out on Tokyo and her targets for 2022.

Why did you choose to move to the University of Texas?

Probably one of the main reasons I went to Texas was because when I went on my visit there and I met the team, it felt like we had known each other for a long time. They were just really welcoming.

And when I went there to start school it was the exact same type of energy, so I was really happy.

I was only over there for like a day, on my first visit, but we’re all so close now.

I was a bit nervous with the move at first because I’m going to a whole new environment, but it wasn’t hard to settle in at all.

Everyone made it easy. I had my coach, Edrick Floréal and my friends, so I had a really good support team over there.

So settling in was really easy. I didn’t expect it to be that easy, but I just got into the run of things straight away.

It was great to come home now and to see my family again.

But I love being over there, because I have a sense of family over there as well. My team mates are all so close.

Rhasidat Adeleke and her proud mother Ade

What is the standard of training like there?

In the short sprints group for girls, there’s five of us and then we have the professionals. We train with them as well.

Our training group is just so fast. The girls are really fast. We just try to stick together through the sessions.

We’re all pulling each other through and that brings out the best in us.

You always have to hit the times. It’s really structured and it’s very specific. They really know what they’re doing over there.

They’re just very educated on the art of sprinting and so it’s really good to know that I’m in such good hands.

Do you get a sense that people in Ireland and particularly Tallaght are still following your progress in the US?

Definitely. I see all the support on Twitter and Instagram. It just makes me so happy to see so many people supporting me.

And to see all those supporters I have here in the club in Tallaght who were there when I was younger, like 14 and 15, still supporting me to this day, it’s great.

How did it feel to break the Irish senior 200m record at Big 12 Championships in Manhattan in May?

It was great to break the Irish record. I didn’t expect to break it so early on after just being over there for about three months.

It usually takes athletes a long time to settle into the new training regime, because it’s so different, so to be able to see the results so early on and achieve exactly what I wanted to do, I was delighted.

Were you happy with your performance in winning 100m gold and 200m silver at the National Championships on your return home.

I was just happy to come home and maintain form, because a lot of athletes are usually drained after the NCAA season. It’s so long.

So I was just delighted to be able to compete at the same level as I was over there.

How disappointed were you not to be selected for the Tokyo Olympic Games?

I definitely would have liked to have a shot at it.

Even when I was watching the 200m races, there were a load of girls who’d qualified who hadn’t run the times that I’d run.

It was like ‘oh I really should be there’. It was very disappointing not to get the chance to go, but look, I’m over it now.

I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve this year and going to the Olympics would have been a bonus.

Rhasidat Adeleke

Heading to the European Under 20 Championships in Tallinn, did you always intend to try for the 100m and 200m double?

It was always an option to do both because I was ranked Number One in Europe in both.

I would have thought about it before, but after the long season I was like ‘oh do I really want to do six races in three days? but I did.

So I actually didn’t decide to do the double until the night before the 100m.

I was only meant to do the 200m and then my coach was like ‘why don’t you try and do the double?’

This was like two days before the race and I was like ‘Ok I’ll think about it.’

So we were already in Estonia. It was the night before the entries closed for the 100m and I was like ‘You know what, I’ll do the 100.’

How difficult is it to attempt a European sprint double?

I decided late that I would do the double and so mentally I had to prepare myself because a double is six races, six warm-ups and you have to preserve your energy as best you can throughout the rounds.

So it takes a lot mentally doing the double. Just coming to the track six times, knowing that you’re going to have to do an hour warm-up all over again, going to the call room for 20 minutes and sit there, people don’t see that.

So after the double, it’s more like you’re relieved that you’re done rather than you’ve actually won.

How did it feel to win a double gold at the European Under 20s?

It was just a huge relief. If I’m doing a double I have to win both events.

I just wouldn’t want to do a double and get like one gold and one bronze, different colours.

So I just set my mind in that I had to win both and to be able to achieve it was just great, because anything can happen at a championships.

I could under-perform and other athletes could over-perform and so to be able to do what I set out to, was great.

Each race gave me more confidence for the next round.

I was really happy to win the 100m because I know I’ll always have enough energy to do the 200m, because that’s what I’m best at. So I knew I’d be ok.

Even after the 100m final I had to the 200m heats an hour later and to cruise in those heats, I ran a 23.20, I was like ‘Wow! I actually raced that fast and I wasn’t even pushing myself to the max.’, It gave me great confidence for the next stage.

The European Juniors are a really big deal so to be able to dominate them was insane, because that’s the best teenagers that Europe has to offer.

I’m running way faster than I was in 2019 when I won the double in the European Youth Olympics, I’m a second faster in the 200 which is a lot.

What is next for you when you return to Texas?

This is my first full year over there because I came in January so this will be my first time training there in Autumn time.

I’m excited to see what training is like because a lot of the team are saying how awful ‘Fall’ training was, it was so hard.

It’s where you build the foundation for your season, it’s when you do all your endurance work.

When you get into the season, there’s indoors and then you have outdoors, so it’s all speed.

But I’m excited, because if I can improve that much from doing what we did from just January to June, literally just all the speed stuff, when I get my foundation work in I’ll be excited to see what I can do.

What will be your primary targets in 2022?

There’s actually a lot in 2022. Because of Covid a lot of things got pushed back.

There’s Senior Indoor Worlds and Europeans, but I’m not sure if I’ll be going to them because it clashes with the NCAA season, but we’ll see how it goes.

Then outdoors, there’s World Championship in Oregon and Europeans as well.

We have no underage championships so everything next year will be all senior.

Your success this year has helped elevate Ireland even higher in international sprinting. Do you think we can make a serious impact in sprinting at the Paris Olympics in 2024?

It was just great to show that Ireland has sprinters as well, not just distance.

Sprinting in this country has already moved up a level. There are just so many sprinters coming through, both female and male.

So even the relay teams for us should be definitely able to qualify for Paris and I’d like to be part of that as well.