Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke is a late withdrawal from the 400 metres at Friday’s Monaco Diamond League, casting some doubt over her racing schedule in the coming weeks.
With a composed and dominant performance, Adeleke won the event at Stade Louis II in Monaco a year ago. Her time of 49.17 seconds was just shy of her Irish record of 49.07 set a month previous, although she’s been well short of breaking 50 seconds in her three 400m Diamond League appearances so far this summer.
No exact reason has been given for Adeleke’s decision to by-pass Monaco. The 22-year-old had been among the entries originally listed earlier this week, and was then absent when the eight-lane line-up was confirmed on Thursday morning.
At last Saturday’s Pre Classic meeting in Eugene, Oregon, at no point did Adeleke appear anywhere near her best when finishing fourth. Sluggish from the gun, missing her usual spark throughout, her time of 51.33 was her slowest time this summer. There was some tapping on her knee, suggesting she may be dealing with some injury issues of late.
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Adeleke’s opening Diamond League appearances in the 400m last month, in Oslo and then Stockholm, were also below 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.
The line-up in Monaco includes Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino from the Dominican Republic, who has already run 48.81 to win the Paris Diamond League, along with Olympic bronze medallist Natalia Kaczmarek-Bukowiecka from Poland, who finished ahead of fourth-placed Adeleke in Paris.
From the outset of this particularly long season, Adeleke has been talking about timing things differently. However, this mid-season interruption was not anticipated with the World Championships in Tokyo only two months away.
Next Saturday’s London Diamond League, where last year Adeleke ran the 200m, doesn’t feature a women’s 400m. The Diamond League then takes a break until Silesia in Poland on August 16th, in part to allow for the staging of National Championships and World Championship trials.
The Irish Championships will take place in Santry on August 2nd/3rd, and Adeleke is expected to make an appearance there, winning the 100m last year in a new Irish record of 11.13 seconds.
Given her last three performances have been regressing, Adeleke will want to show some return to top form before the World Championships if she is to challenge for a medal.
While Monaco includes several other Olympic rematches, including Noah Lyles from the US and Letsile Tebogo from Botswana in the 200m, and the full podium in the men’s 800m, Adeleke can perhaps take some comfort from the fact Olympic 5,000m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen from Norway and Britain’s 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson have yet to race outdoors this season due to injury, yet still hope to be fit for Tokyo.
Over a dozen other Irish Olympians will be in action on Friday evening at the Morton International Games in Santry, including Sharlene Mawdsley in a high-quality 400m, and Andrew Coscoran and Cathal Doyle in the headline event, the Morton Mile. Jack Raftery runs the men’s 400m having recently clocked 44.98, joining David Gillick as the second member of the Irish sub-45 club, with Israel Olatunde will be eyeing his Irish 100m record of 10.12 seconds.
