The last thing Rhasidat Adeleke needed to do was drag out her season any longer. Not when her performances have been starkly short of her best and there was little sign of turning that form around.
Nor, indeed, had she anything to prove.
In the end, then, her decision to withdraw from next month’s World Championships in Tokyo was not unexpected, or even mildly surprising. Although that won’t have made the decision any easier for Adeleke.
This season, from the very beginning, was all about Tokyo, with the Irish sprinter still chasing that global sprint medal which has narrowly eluded her over the last two seasons. Adeleke turns 23 next week, still some years off reaching her full potential in the 400 metres with plenty more to learn too.
RM Block
Adeleke would never go to Tokyo without believing she could compete at her absolute best, and certainly not just to make up the numbers in the relay. The championships don’t start until September 13th, but she hasn’t raced since July 19th, when she finished fourth in the 200m in London. Her prospects still evidently bleak, her time had simply run out.
It hasn’t been down to one particular fault, nor has it been a sudden crash-and-burn which often ends championship hopes. Rather, it was a gradual malfunctioning of various sorts before her engine simply stopped running. It happens, especially in a post-Olympic year.
By her own admission, the “lingering injuries and continuous setbacks made it increasingly difficult to train and perform at the level I expect from myself”. It is unlikely that any world-class athlete would continue in those circumstances.
In her 10 races so far in 2025 – seven individual, and three relay legs – Adeleke has never looked her sharpest. She raced three times over 400m, starting with two Diamond League appearances in June. She clocked 50.42 seconds to finish fourth in Oslo, before fading to sixth in the homestretch in Stockholm, three nights later, where she clocked 50.48.
Then, at the Pre Classic meeting in Oregon on July 5th, she finished fourth again in 51.33. That was a full 2.26 seconds – or approximately 20m of track – down on Adeleke’s Irish record of 49.07, which she ran last year when winning the silver medal at the European Championships in Rome.
With 15 women already breaking 50 seconds so far this season, and three breaking 49 seconds, Adeleke had a lot of time to make up before Tokyo. In all, she broke 50 seconds four times last summer, including the 49.28 clocked when finishing fourth at the Paris Olympics. In contrast, her season best this time around is 50.42, which is currently ranked 26th in the world.
More tellingly, perhaps, Adeleke made no secret of her desire to improve on her finishing speed and strength in the 400m. She had slipped back into fourth in Paris in the last 50m, when she was passed by Poland’s Natalia Bukowiecka, who also beat her to gold in Rome. However, that closing part of her race appears to have become even more of a problem in 2025.
In her statement on Instagram on Monday night, Adeleke pointed at “yet another recent roadblock” which has ultimately left her unable to finish out the season. She was unequivocal in adding she’ll “take this time to heal, recover and do what’s necessary so I can show up next season as my best self, mind and body”.
Whether that necessitates some changes to her training set-up remains to be seen. However, Adeleke hasn’t yet been clear on the exact nature of her lingering injuries, or the extent of those continuous setbacks.
From the outset of this particularly long season, she talked about timing things differently. She repeatedly referenced that approach along with her coach Edrick Floréal at the University of Texas at Austin.
At the World Athletics Relay Championships in Guangzhou, China, in early May, Adeleke also spoke about qualification for Tokyo being their only priority. However, Sharlene Mawdsley produced the fastest Irish split of the entire weekend. She ran 50.01 in the qualification round of the women’s 4x400m, faster than Adeleke’s 50.38, which in hindsight was perhaps the first warning sign.
“Me and my coach have been working on something different,” Adeleke said after finishing fourth in Oslo. “The main goal is September, so each race I’m building up, to make it to where I need to be.”
After withdrawing from the Monaco Diamond League on July 11th – where she won the 400m last year in 49.17 – she ran 22.52 for 200m in London, down on her Irish record of 22.32 from 2023.
“I’ll take it,” she said after that race, adding that she was “just making sure I can stay healthy and stay motivated and disciplined and just continue on the road to Tokyo . . . trying to make sure our eyes are focused on that, even though there’s so many other things going on”.
Again, she wasn’t clear about the “many other things”, but after withdrawing from the National Track and Field Championships on the first weekend in August, she revealed “an injury I had earlier this season has transcended into additional lingering setbacks”. At that point, the writing was on the wall.
Adeleke has been based in Texas since January, 2021, when she started mid first-year, still only 18. She forfeited her last year of collegiate eligibility to turn professional with Nike after finishing fourth in the 400m at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, though still graduated with a degree in corporate communications last year.
Her training group in Texas includes Julien Alfred, the Olympic 100m champion from St Lucia, and formerly Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, the 200m world champion in 2019. At no stage has Adeleke even hinted that set-up would likely change any time soon, although events of recent months may alter that.
A tough decision for another day.
