Rhasidat Adeleke’s rise through the ranks of international athletics continued at the weekend when she smashed her own Irish 400m record at the NCAA Division 1 Prelims West in Sacramento, California.
Competing for a place in next month’s NCAA Finals in Austin, Adeleke produced a scintillating quarter-final performance to advance with ease, winning her race in an extraordinary time of 49.54.
The University of Texas student knocked 0.36 off her previous national record in the process, which she had set in mid-April when she ran 49.90 at the Tom Jones Invitational in Florida.
Her latest record is another spectacular step forward in the 20-year-old’s remarkable young career as she moves into the top fifty on the world all-time list for the event, now sitting in 45th.
The time is also the third fastest in the world so far this year and would have been good enough for silver at the last World Championships in Oregon in July 2022 and fourth in the Tokyo Olympic final the year before.
Neither was she alone in posting new record times.
Ciara Mageean regained the national senior 800m record that she had lost last year to Louise Shanahan.
Mageean finished second in an exciting race at the British Milers Club meet in Manchester clocking a superb time of 1.59.27.
Nick Griggs broke the Irish U20 5000m record in Belgium.
Competing at the popular IFAM meet in Oordegem, Griggs clocked a time of 13.36.47 in what was an extremely competitive race.
The time knocks an incredible twenty seconds off the previous record of 13.54.10 held by Darragh McElhinney which was set at the same meet in 2019.
Griggs’ latest record comes just two weeks after he broke his own Irish U20 3000m best at the Irish Milers Club in Belfast as he finished second behind Tokyo Olympian Andrew Coscoran in a time of 7.53.24.
The 18-year-old from Tyrone now holds the national U20 record in the 1500m (Indoors), Mile (Indoors and Outdoors), 3000m (Indoors and Outdoors) and 5000m (Outdoors), illustrating his ability across a broad range of distances.
The teenager has a busy summer ahead and will be hoping to lower his times and challenge for silverware, including at the European U20 Championships in Jerusalem.
