Rhasidat Adeleke’s remarkable 2023 so far

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With nearly five months gone in 2023 it is worth putting into perspective the fantastic year that Rhasidat Adeleke has had to date.

Still only 20 years old Adeleke continues to break new ground in Irish sprinting and looks to have a phenomenally exciting future ahead.

The consistency of her performances both indoors and outdoors this year have been breath-taking with several records being rewritten along the way.

The highlight of the University of Texas students’ indoor season was winning silver at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque in March. The field was split into two races with Adeleke running in the first, as she stormed to a silver medal in 50.45s.

In early February the Dubliner became the first Irish woman ever to break 51 seconds indoors, taking more than a second off the previous record which had been set by Karen Shinkins in 2002, before Adeleke was even born. She clocked 50.45s on that occasion.

Three weeks on and Adeleke once more lowered that time when she ran 50.33s to win at the Big 12 Championships in Lubbock, Texas.

Back in January Adeleke had lowered her 200m indoor record to 22.52s obliterating her previous record of 22.85s that had come the year before.

The indoor season was fantastic for the Tallaght A.C. athlete but it was soon time to head outdoors. This came in April and unsurprisingly Adeleke began her season with a bang, starting as she had left off.

In the first weekend of last month, she helped Texas to three collegiate records in one weekend: the 4x400m record, medley relay record and 4x100m record.

In mid-April she ran her first Irish record of the outdoor season, running a time of 22.34s for 200m to take nearly two tenths of a second off her lifetime best.

Twenty-four hours later and it was time for another record to fall. This time it was arguably the most impressive feat of the young sprinters career to date.

Adeleke became the first Irish woman to ever break fifty seconds over 400m, running an astonishingly fast 49.90s at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational in Florida.

It is worth noting that the time would have been quick enough to finish fourth in last year's World Athletics Championships final in Oregon, and sixth in the 400m final at the Tokyo Olympics.

It took close to half a second (0.43s) off her fastest ever time and moved her into elite world class territory. Just over one hundred women have ever broken the magical 50 second barrier in history so for Adeleke to have already achieved it at such a young age points to exciting times ahead.

Adeleke will race this weekend in the 400m, 4x100m and 4x400m for her college at the NCAA Division One Prelims West in Sacramento, with the heats of the 400m early tomorrow morning (May 26th) at around 3:30am Irish Time.

It looks like it will be yet another busy weekend for Adeleke, who has a massive summer and career still firmly ahead of her.

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