Rhasidat Adeleke

Rhasidat Adeleke (born 29 August 2002) is an Irish sprinter.

Adeleke was the first Irish woman to break the 50-second barrier in the 400 metres. She holds seven individual Irish national records (60 m indoors, 100 m outdoors, 200 m indoors and out, 300 m indoors and 400 m indoors and out). As part of relay teams, she contributed to setting two additional national records: the women's 4 × 400 metres relay and the mixed 4 × 400 metres relay.

Background
Adeleke was born in Dublin in 2002 to parents Ade and Prince Adeleke, who were originally from Oyo State in western Nigeria. Ade has worked for state postal company An Post.

She attended St Mark's Primary school in Tallaght before going on to attend Presentation Community College Terenure.

She is a member of Tallaght Athletic Club.

Career
In 2017, 14-year-old Rhasidat Adeleke won a junior sprint double at the Irish Schools championships for Presentation College, Terenure. A month later, she claimed the silver medal in the 200 metres at the European Youth Olympic Festival held in Győr, Hungary.

In 2018, she took gold in the event at the European Under-18 Championships staged also in Győr, and a silver at the World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland competing in the heats of the 4 x 100 m relay with Molly Scott, Gina Akpe-Moses, Ciara Neville and Patience Jumbo-Gula.

In 2019, she claimed the 100 m / 200 m sprint double at the European Youth Olympic Festival held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

2021
In 2021, still 18, Adeleke won her first senior national outdoor title followed by winning the 100 m / 200 m sprint double at the European U20 Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, the first women's sprint double at these championships since 2011. That same year, she took up a scholarship with the University of Texas at Austin and competed in the US Collegiate Indoor Championships.

2022
In August 2022, she placed fifth in the 400 metres final at the European Championships held in Munich, setting an Irish record of 50.53 seconds.

2023
On 21 January, the 20-year-old lowered her own national indoor 200 m record with a world-leading time of 22.52 s, the fastest time by a European woman since 2003, at the Martin Luther King Invitational in Albuquerque, New Mexico (at altitude). On 4 February, at the UNM Collegiate Classic also in Albuquerque, she set a new Irish indoor record in the 400 m with a world-leading 50.45 s, the fastest time in history indoors or out by an Irish woman. Adeleke improved this mark to 50.33 s the same month, on 25 February at the Big 12 Indoor Championships in Lubbock, Texas, breaking the NCAA record and putting her 14th on the respective world all-time list. The following month, she ran 50.45 s at the NCCA Indoors final, again in Albuquerque, earning the silver medal to become the first Irish athlete to win a medal in an NCAA sprint event. She picked up a second silver just one hour later, anchoring the Texas women's 4 × 400 m relay.

Adeleke opened her outdoor season at the Texas Relays in Austin on 31 March. She split 21.7 s in the second 200 m leg of the Texas sprint medley relay, which shattered the collegiate record with a time of 3:36.10. The following day, she ran in three other Texas relays. 4 × 100 m and 4 × 200 m teams set NCAA records with times of 42.00 s and 1:28.05 respectively, while 4 x 400 m team anchored by Adeleke won the competition. On 14 and 15 April, Adeleke obliterated both her national 200 m and 400 m records clocking 22.34 and 49.90 seconds respectively at the Tom Jones Memorial in Gainesville, Florida, becoming the first Irish woman to break the 50-second barrier at the longer distance. A month later, she was part of the relay team that lowered Texas 4 × 100 m collegiate record with a time of 41.89 s at the Big 12 Championships in Norman, Oklahoma. On 27 May, she further lowered her 400 m Irish record to 49.54 s at the NCCA Western Regionals in Sacramento, California. On 8 June, she was part of the Texas 4 X 100 m relay team that again broke the NCCA record in the semi-finals at the NCCA Division 1 National Outdoor Championships in Austin, Texas in 41.55 s. At the same meet on 10 June she again lowered her national record over 400 m to 49.20 s to take gold in the final, having earlier taken gold as part of the Texas quartet that won the 4 X 100 m relay.

On 16 July, Adeleke announced that she would be foregoing her final year of eligibility at the University of Texas and would instead be turning professional. Adeleke ran her first race as a professional, representing Nike, at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial 2023, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting at Szekesfehervar, Hungary on 18 July. She finished second in the 200 m in 22.36 (just outside her Irish record of 22.34), behind Shericka Jackson of Jamaica, who ran 22.02. Adeleke made her Wanda Diamond League debut on 21 July at the Stade Louis II in Monaco. She finished fourth in the 400 metres in 49.99s, in a race won by Poland's Natalia Kaczmarek, who finished in 49.63s. On 20 August, Adeleke won her heat in the 400m in 50.8 s at the World Athletic Championships in Budapest, Hungary. On 21 August, she finished second in her semi-final in 49.87 behind the Olympic silver medalist Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic, registering the fourth fastest time overall. In the final on 23 August, Adeleke finished fourth in 50.13s, behind Paulino (48.76), Poland's Natalia Kaczmarek (49.57) and Sada Williams of Barbados (49.60).

2024
In her first race of the 2024 indoor season, on January 13 in Louisville, Kentucky, Adeleke ran a split of 51.74s in the second leg of the 4 × 400 m relay. On January 20, Adeleke broke her Irish national indoor 60m and 200m records at the Dr Martin Luther King Jr Collegiate Invitational in Albuquerque, New Mexico, running 7.15s and 22.49s respectively. Adeleke broke her own Irish 300 metres indoors record at the Milrose Games in New York on February 11th, running 36.42 sec to finish second behind Talitha Diggs (US).

Adeleke opened her outdoor season on March 30 at the Texas Relays in Austin, where she ran the second leg in the 4 × 200 m. The winning time, 1 min, 27.05 sec, was a new World Best, but not a world record, as Adeleke, Julien Alfred, Lanae Thomas, and Dina Asher-Smith were from different countries. On April 27, at the Texas Invitational in Austin, Adeleke won the open 100 metres for women in a personal best 10.84, ahead of  American Celera Barnes, Great Britain's Dina Asher-Smith, and Julien Alfred (St Lucian). Adeleke's time did not constitute a new Irish record as her run was wind-assisted (+3.5 metres per second).

At the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas on May 4, Adeleke helped Ireland's mixed 4 × 400 m and women's 4 × 400 m relay teams to win their heats and qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, running sub 50 second splits on the second leg in both. First, the team of Cillin Greene, Adeleke, Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley set a new Irish record of 3.12.50 to win the mixed relay heat, with Belgium second (3.13.18) and Great Britain third (3.13.52). Then, some 90 minutes later, the team of Sophie Becker, Adeleke, Phil Helay and Sharlene Mawdsley ran 3.24.38 - another Irish record - to take their heat ahead of Great Britain (3.24.89) and Cuba (3.31.56). On May 5, Adeleke ran the second leg of the mixed 4 × 400m final at the same meet, and helped the Irish team to a third-place finish in 3.11.53, a new Irish record, behind the United States (3.10.73) and the Netherlands (3.11.45). Adeleke had the fastest 400 m split time (48.45) across all female 400 m runners at the meet, with 2023 world champion Marileidi Paulino next fastest (48.93), followed by world indoor champion Femke Bol (49.54) and current Tokyo Olympic champion over 400 m, Shaunae Miller-Uibo (49.54). Adeleke (and teammate Sharlene Mawdsley) sat out the 4 × 400 women's final, as it took place just 30 minutes after the mixed final.

On May 18, Adeleke finished fourth over 200 m at the Los Angeles Grand Prix in 22.45,  behind  Americans Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (22.07), Abby Steiner (22.32), and Brittany Brown (22.35). Adeleke's time was inside the Paris Olympics qualifying standard of 22.57 but below her Irish record of 22.34 set in 2023.

At the European Athletics Championships in Rome on June 7, Adeleke ran the second leg of the mixed 4 × 400 m relay, helping Ireland to win a gold medal, ahead of Italy and the Netherlands. The Irish team of Chris O'Donnell, Adeleke, Thomas Barr, and Sharlene Mawdsley ran a new Irish record of 3.09.92, with Adeleke running a split time of 49.53 s. In the semifinal of the individual 400 metres at the same meet, on June 9, Adeleke won her heat in 50.54 - the fastest among all qualifiers. In the 400 m final on June 10, Adeleke took silver in a new Irish record (49.07 s), just behind the winner, Poland's Natalia Kaczmarek (48.98 s). In the final of the women's 4 by 400 relay on June 12th, Adeleke ran the second leg to help power Ireland to a silver medal in a new national record (3.22.71 s) behind the Netherlands (3.22.95 s). Other members of the Irish quartet were again Sophie Becker, Phil Healy and Sharlene Mawdsley.

At the 2024 National Track and Field Championships, Adeleke broke the 100 metres outdoor record, winning with a time of 11.13 seconds.

At the Monaco Diamond League meet on July 12th, Adeleke won the 400m in 49.17, her second fastest time ever, ahead of Lieke Klaver (49.64) and Ellis Kendall (50.39). At the London Diamond League meet on July 20, Adeleke finished fifth over 400 m in 22.35, with USA's Gabrielle Thomas (21.82 s) taking top spot.

International competitions
1Time from the heats; Adeleke was replaced in the final.

National and NCAA titles

 * Irish Athletics Championships
 * 100 metres: 2021, 2022, 2024
 * Irish Indoor Athletics Championships
 * 200 metres: 2019
 * NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships
 * 4 x 100 m relay: 2022
 * 4 X 100 m relay: 2023
 * 400 m: 2023