At no point did Rhasidat Adeleke appear anywhere near her best when finishing fourth in the 400 metres at Saturday’s Pre Classic meeting in Eugene, Oregon. Sluggish from the gun and missing her usual spark throughout, her time of 51.33 was over two seconds off her Irish record.
From the outset of this particularly long season, with the World Championships in Tokyo still over two months away, Adeleke has been talking about timing things differently. For the third race in succession, however, her performances have been regressing.
At 22, the Dublin sprinter has been making rapid progress each season since first concentrating on the 400m in 2022. There’s no reason to panic, given Tokyo’s still some distance away, although Eugene provided another reminder of the gaps she’ll need to close if she is to challenge for a medal come September.
The ninth stop on the Diamond League circuit, staged at the famed Hayward Field, was won by Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone from the US, who dominated the one-lap race to clock 49.43. Also short of her best of 48.74, set two years ago, the breezy conditions weren’t ideal for fast sprinting. The 25-year-old specialises in the 400m hurdles, the event where she has lowered the world record on six occasions, and may be eying a double in Tokyo
RM Block
US team-mates Aaliyah Butler took second in 49.86, with Bella Whittaker third in 50.81. Coming into the homestretch in fifth, Adeleke did hold her form to move up to fourth, but her Irish record of 49.07, set in June of last year, for now looks well out of reach.
Adeleke’s opening Diamond League appearances in the 400m last month, in Oslo and then Stockholm, were also under par. She faded to sixth in the homestretch in Stockholm, running 50.48, having run 50.42 to finish fourth in Oslo three nights before.
Plenty of other Tokyo contenders were in blazing form in Eugene, the 50th Pre Classic rated the best one-day Diamond League meeting history. Kenyans Faith Kipyegon and Beatrice Chebet broke world records over the 1,500m and 5,000m respectively – the first time in 32 years that two outdoor women’s distance world records fell on the same day on the track.
Kipyegon’s 3:48.68 was well inside the 3:49.04 she set last year, and Sarah Healy was among those left chasing after Kipyegon broke clear with two laps to go. Still Healy ran well to finish seventh in 3:57.20, just off her lifetime best of 3:57.15 set last month when finishing second in the Paris Diamond League, having won in Rome a few weeks before.
There was simply no stopping Kipyegon, her last 300m a dazzling 44 seconds. Chebet became the first woman to go under 14:00 for 5,000m on the track, winning in 13:58.06, taking down the 14:00.21 set by Gudaf Tsegay from Ethiopia in 2023, also in Eugene. Rising Dutch star Neils Laros also won the Bowerman Mile, the 20-year-old clocking 3:45.94.
Next up for Adeleke is a trip to Monaco next Friday, where she scored her first Diamond League victory last year, running 49.17 seconds, only this time Olympic and World champion Marileidy Paulino for company.
Ireland’s Orla Comerford produced another victory in the Para Athletics mixed-class 100m in Eugene, winning in 12.14 seconds ahead of Brittni Mason from the US, who clocked 12.40.
At the National Under-20 and Under-23 Championships in Tullamore, Precious Akpe-Moses of Blackrock AC was among the standout performances. The younger sister of former European Under-20 100m champion Gina Akpe-Moses produced a dominant double in the Under-20 100m, clocking 11.64, and a championship record of 23.66 in the 200m.
Seán Doggett of Athenry AC won the Under-20 400m in 47.08, while Nick Griggs made a triumphant return to national winning form, taking the Under-23 800m in 1:52.46.
