Another weekend, another record broken, Rhasidat Adeleke this time joining forces with her University of Texas team-mates to take down their college indoor 4x400 metres relay mark which had stood for the last nine years.
Still fresh and buoyant after shattering the Irish indoor 400m record last Saturday, Adeleke took to the track at the Tiger Paw Invitational in Clemson, South Carolina, the Texas quartet combining to take the win in 3:26.73.
Earlier on Saturday, Adeleke also raced to victory in the individual 200m, clocking 22.68 seconds.
Adeleke, still only 20 and midway through her junior year at the University of Texas, took that Irish indoor 400m mark down to 50.45 seconds last weekend, competing at the University of New Mexico Collegiate Classic, breaking the previous mark of 51.58 seconds which had stood to Karen Shinkins since 2002.
That was faster too than her outdoor record of 50.53, clocked when she finished fifth in the European Championship 400m final in Munich last August, run out of the unfavourable lane one. She also led the 4x400m relay team to a final placing, an Irish record on their way there also.
Last month, she also broke her own Irish 200m indoor record with a then world-leading time of 22.52. It leaves her red-hot favourite to win the NCAA title when the championships take place at the same Albuquerque venue on the second weekend in March.
Elsewhere in the US, Sophie O’Sullivan improved her indoor mile best to 4:33.24, racing at the oversized track at the University of Washington. Though it won’t count for official indoor record purposes, it betters the indoor mile best of her mother Sonia, and the 4:33.49 she clocked in Boston back in 1991.
At the famed Millrose Games in New York, 23-year-old American Yared Nuguse won the Wanamaker Mile in 3:47.38, taking more than two seconds off the previous American record of 3:49.89 set by Bernard Lagat way back in 2005.
Only one man has ever run faster indoors, Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha, whose 3:47.01 world record set in 2019 at the lightning-fast Boston University track just barely survived. Luke McCann improved his indoor mile best to 3:53.55 to finish in eighth place.
The sub-four minute mile indoors is not quite what it used to be, however, 53 runners going sub-four in one evening alone across a series of mile races at the Valentine Invitational in Boston on Saturday
In the men’s 800m, Mark English nailed sixth place in 1:48.76, having run 1:46.57 in Boston the week before. Kenya’s Noah Kibet took the win in 1:44.98.
Back at home, the National Indoor League final took place at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena in Abbotstown, with Dundrum South Dublin and Clonliffe Harriers taking home the women’s and men’s titles that Leevale had won in 2022.
Georgie Hartigan of Dundrum South Dublin wrapped up her indoor season with wins in the 800m, 1500m and 4x400m relay. The Irish 1,000m record holder showed her class in all three races and played a pivotal role in her club’s success.
Marcus Lawler helped his Clonliffe Harriers team take victory in the 4x200m relay running a strong first leg. Clonliffe had earlier stormed to victory in the 4x400m relay.
Team results
Men
Clonliffe Harriers 110 Points
Leevale AC 94 Points
Nenagh Olympic AC 85 Points
Women
Dundrum South Dublin AC 110.5 Points
Ratoath AC 86.5 Points
Craughwell AC 74 Points
