In a near complete re-run of the Olympic 400 metres, Rhasidat Adeleke has finished fourth in the Silesia Diamond League meeting in Poland on Sunday, only this time putting up a real challenge to the three women ahead of her.
Running in lane seven, Adeleke blasted through the first 200m and still had a slight advantage on Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic coming off the final bend, before the Olympic champion in Paris powered past to take the win in a meeting record of 48.66 seconds.
Halfway down the homestretch Adeleke was still poised to get the better of Paris silver and bronze medallists, Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser and Natalia Kaczmarek from Poland, who both managed to edge past her before the line.
Naser took second in 49.23, Kaczmarek got up for third in 49.95, just ahead of Adeleke, who finished in 50 seconds flat.
Earlier, Jakob Ingebrigtsen shattered one of the longest standing track world records as he clocked a staggering 7:17.55 for the 3000m, taking more than three seconds off the mark of 7:20.67 set by Kenya’s Daniel Komen in 1996.
It was a huge performance for the 23-year-old Norwegian who lost his Olympic 1500m title in Paris earlier this month but won gold in the 5000m.
Already third on the world all-time list with the 7:23.63 he ran in Eugene last year, he knew there was a big gap even to the second best performance of 7:23.09, set by Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999.
But on this day Ingebrigtsen became a history man, moving clear of the field over the final lap. In the same race, Nick Griggs, still only 19, finished 12th in 7:39.52, just outside his best of and Irish Under-23 record of 7:36.59 set in London in July.
400m result:
1. Marileidy Paulino 48.66
2. Salwa Eid Naser 49.23
3. Natalia Kaczmarek 49.95
4. Rhasidat Adeleke 50.00
5. Alexis Holmes 50.01
6. Henriette Jaeger 50.33
7. Lieke Klaver 50.46
8. Sada Williams 50.82
9. Laviai Nielsen 51.02
