Rhasidat Adeleke secured her first senior individual medal with a superb silver-medal-winning run at the European Championships in Rome last night.
It was a great performance, setting a new Personal best and National Record of 49.07, less than one-tenth of a second behind Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek, who took the gold in 48.98.
Adeleke ran a superb race, rounding the final bend right in contention for gold alongside Kaczmarek before the leading duo settled down for a head-to-head dual over the final 100 meters.
Ultimately, Kaczmarek would nudge ahead in the final strides, with Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands rounding off the podium places (50.08) in third.
Adeleke’s relay teammate, Sharlene Mawdsley, finished eighth (51.59) in her first championship final as an individual.
It completed a remarkable 400m competition for the Irish at these championships, with all three athletes securing top-ten placings, Adeleke (2), Mawdsley (8), and Becker (10).
Speaking to David Gillick on RTÉ after the race, she was pleased to have secured the medal and spoke about not having adjusted her training schedule for Paris, holding out the hope that there is yet more to come.
All three, who played pivotal roles in the mixed relay team’s success on Friday, are also part of the women’s 4x400m relay team, which is set to take to the track this morning. They will run in the second heat of the first round at 10:27.
The top tens continued to come Ireland’s way in the women’s hammer competition, with 20-year-old Nicola Tuthill claiming ninth place in her first European Final with a best throw of 69.09m. It marked another huge milestone in the career of the Cork athlete who has very quickly become a leading ambassador for Irish throws.
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