European 400m fifth-placer Rhasidat Adeleke tore the Irish record books asunder this weekend at the Tom Jones Memorial in Gainesville, Florida.
Still only 20 and making her individual outdoor season’s debut after a record-breaking indoor campaign, Adeleke improved her national 200m record from 22.52 to 22.34 before becoming the first Irishwoman to break the coveted 50 second-barrier in the 400m with 49.90.
Adeleke’s range and versatility is such that she won double gold in the 100m and 200m at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tallinn in 2021 - the first woman to achieve the sprint double in a decade - and she also holds the Irish indoor 60m record at 7.17.
As well as the World Athletics Championships in Budapest in mid-August, one of her imminent goals is to take ownership of the Irish 100m record - the one Irish sprint record missing from her collection - which currently stands at 11.28.
As quoted by the Irish Times, her coach Edrick Floreal said: “There’s one record she doesn’t have, the 100 metres. And she’s bursting for that one, really wants that one. If she does, she’ll have every Irish record, from 60m, to 400m. So I promised her if we do enough quality I’ll give her the chance to run it.
“We just have to do it right. You can’t start doing too much speedwork too soon.”
Ihemeje bounds out to 17.29m world lead in the triple jump
World triple jump fifth-placer Emmanuel Ihemeje from Italy opened his outdoor season in excellent form at the Mt SAC Relays in Walnut, California on Saturday (15).
The 24-year-old set an early season world leading mark of 17.29m and he also bounded out to a wind-assisted 17.47m, propelled by a tailwind of 2.8 m/s.
Ihemeje moves up to fifth on the Italian all-time list behind Fabrizio Donato (17.60m), Daniele Greco (17.47m), Paolo Camossi (17.45m) and Andrea Dallavalle (17.35m).
European champion Mykolas Alekna from Lithuania won the discus with 68.35m - just four centimetres shy of his world leading mark - and European shot put bronze medallist Jorinde Van Klinken from the Netherlands won the women’s discus with 64.45m.
Still only 19, world U20 fourth-placer Dimitrios Pavlidis smashed the Greek discus record at the Kansas Relays in Lawrence on Friday (14) with 64.90m - his first 60 metre-plus throw with the senior implement.
At the Larry Ellis Invitational in Princeton on Saturday, recently crowned European indoor pole vault champion Sondre Guttormsen from Norway cleared 5.80m before attempting 5.90m.