Adeleke just misses Irish 200m record with fifth-place at London Diamond League meeting
Francesco Images Photo Scaccianoce/getty Adeleke Ireland's By Rhasidat
Rhasidat Adeleke came up just shy of her Irish 200m record at the London Diamond League this afternoon, the 21-year-old Dubliner clocking 22.35 to finish fifth in a loaded field.
Adeleke’s Irish record is the 22.34 she ran in Florida in April last year and, drawn in lane eight in London, she was running blind but mixed it well against the world’s best. Running into a gentle headwind of 0.9 metres per second, she came home fifth, with US Olympic favourite Gabby Thomas winning in a meeting record of 21.82 and Adeleke’s training partner Julien Alfred of St Lucia second in a national record of 21.86.
Earlier in the afternoon, there was a strong signal that the level required to win a 400m medal in Paris has gone up a notch, with NCAA champion Nickisha Price of Jamaica smashing her national record to clock a world lead of 48.57, with Natalia Kaczmarek – who edged Adeleke to gold in the European final last month – breaking the Polish record in second with 48.90. Adeleke’s best is the 49.07 she ran in that final in Rome.
In the men's 3000m, there were breakthrough runs from both Nick Griggs and Brian Fay who both smashed their personal bests. Griggs took a whopping five seconds off his Irish U-23 record to finish 10th in 7:36.59. Fay took two seconds off his PB when finishing seventh in 7:34.48, which keeps him third on the Irish all-time list behind Mark Carroll and Alistair Cragg. The race was won by Switzerland's Dominic Lobalu in 7:27.68.
Andrew Coscoran moved third on the Irish all-time list after finishing eighth in the Emsley Carr Mile, the Balbriggan man clocking 3:50.49, a time which only Irish record holder Ray Flynn and Eamonn Coghlan have surpassed. The race was won by Australia’s Ollie Hoare in 3:49.03.
Elsewhere, Dutch star Femke Bol continued her sparkling form with victory in the women’s 400m hurdles in a meeting record of 51.30, while in the men’s 400m Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith smashed the European record to win in 43.74. World champion Noah Lyles broke his personal best to take victory in the men's 100m in 9.81.