Coming into the homestretch, right where the stagger unwinds, Rhasidat Adeleke had an Olympic 400 metres final at her beckoning, only some signs of concern were already there.
Salwa Eid Naser from Bahrain had got a clear run on her, and suddenly Adeleke was struggling, losing her form and it seemed some hope too, before holding on second place. Plenty good for now.
Still her time of 49.95 seconds appeared laboured, and something clearly was off. The Olympics do take a different sort of physical toll, and this race had taken more out of her than she would have liked.
With that she became the first Irish woman to make an Olympic sprint final, but the 21-year-old from Dublin clearly knew herself at that point too that her race had not gone to plan. With little hint of celebration, she made her way up the exit ramp, stopping to sit down along the way.
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Nothing more than exhaustion from her effort, still some concern perhaps going into Friday’s final.
Adeleke was able to do a brief interview with RTÉ on the exit ramp, then unable to make it through the mixed zone, the Team Ireland management intervening at that stage, ensuring she got some medical attention, purely on precautionary grounds.
Team Ireland media manager Heather Boyle said Adeleke was simply suffering from the exertions of her effort; there were no symptoms of any illness beforehand, and for now at least no reason to fear she won’t be able to take her place in Friday’s final.
“It was very messy, it was a very messy race,” Adeleke told RTÉ. “I’m just excited that I’m able to get into the final and fix everything for when I do get into the final.”
Drawn in the first of the three semi-finals, there was a restart after Dutch runner Lieke Klaver was given a warning, and Adeleke suggested that possibly upset her race execution: Klaver missed out on qualifying in fourth, Henrietta Jaeger from Norway closing fast on Adeleke to nail third, also qualifying.
“They first they held us really long and I think I was ready to go then. But when we went again I feel I was just thinking about it too much and didn’t execute my first 100m as I should have.
“And I didn’t execute my first 200m as I should have, but that’s all things we can fix for the final. And I think I also panicked a little bit which made me break form really early ... but I’ve been in a place where the rounds may not have went as I wanted them to, but the final went great so I’m not too worried about it.”
After holding on for the second automatic spot, Adeleke was later drawn in lane four for Friday’s final, her 49.95 still ranked sixth fastest of the eight qualifiers. In winning that semi-final, Naser improved her season best of 49.08, the 2019 world champion, who later served a doping ban, fast improving again it seems.
It was slightly cooler inside the Stade de France than recent nights, and the times across the other two semi-finals were not particularly fast. The 2023 world champion Marileidy Paulino from the Dominican Republic won the second semi-final in 49.21, another Nickisha Pryce from Jamaica completely run out of the qualifying spots there.
Poland’s European champion Natalia Kaczmarek, who along with Pryce had been the only other women who has run faster than Adeleke this year, won the third semi-final in 49.45, and along with Naser and Paulino, is certainly rounding into her best form. Naser has also blitzed a 48.14, the third fastest time in history, before serving a two-year ban for missed doping tests.
Whether Adeleke can recover her best form before Friday’s final is now the big question: her Irish record of 49.07 seconds, clocked with winning silver at the European Championships in June, would certainly put her in the mix for a medal, and running in lane four, she’ll also have a clear view of the runners ahead of her.
Hopefully still in contention coming into the homestretch, right where the stagger unwinds.
Earlier, in another frantic morning session involving five athletes, Mark English produced one of the coolest runs of his life when cruising straight through to Friday’s semi-finals of the 800 metres – nailing the second automatic spot in his heat, right alongside Gabriel Tual from France.
Tual ran is one of the medal favourites, running 1:41.61 this summer, but English matched him stride for stride, Tual just keeping his vest in front in 1:45.13, English right alongside him in 1:45.15.
Sarah Lavin had earlier done likewise in her heats of the 100m hurdles, straight through to the semi-finals in second in 12.73, behind Jamaica’s World champion Danielle Williams (12.59).
Sophie O’Sullivan and Sarah Healy were also back on the track for the second time in 24 hours, for the repechage round of the 1,500m, and despite another brave run from O’Sullivan she again missed out on the semi-final by just one place, finishing fourth and unfortunately it was the same again for Healy too – and with that ends their first Olympic experience.
