Rhasidat Adeleke breaks Irish 400m record with second fastest time in world this year

Another day in the life, another record smashed, with Rhasidat Adeleke this time trimming her own Irish record over 400 metres down to a brilliant 50.33 seconds.

It’s the fastest women’s indoor time in American collegiate history, Adeleke nailing the win at the Big 12 Conference Championships in Lubbock, Texas and improving her previous mark of 50.45 set at altitude in Albuquerque earlier this month.

The Dublin sprinter, in her third year at the University of Texas in Austin, is still only adjusting to the longer distance and is now the 14th fastest on the all-time indoor list and the second fastest in the world this year behind the world record of 49.26 by Femke Bol at the Dutch Championships last week.

Hitting the halfway mark in 23.62, Adeleke kicked hard again down the backstretch and won comfortably from her teammate Kennedy Simon, who ran 51.01 in second.

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Her 50.33 is edging ever closer to the magical 50-second barrier, while her 50.45 earlier this month obliterated the previous Irish record of 51.58, set by Karen Shinkins back in 2002.

Still only 20, it’s again faster than her outdoor record of 50.53, clocked when she finished fifth in the European Championship 400m final in Munich last August, run out of the unfavourable lane one. She also led the 4x400m relay team to a final placing, an Irish record set their also.

[ Rhasidat Adeleke continues her record-breaking form in South Carolina ]

[ Sportswoman of the Month for January: Rhasidat Adeleke ]

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Her next focus will be that individual NCAA title, the championships set for Albuquerque on March 10th/11th, which means she will miss the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul next weekend.

It continues her stunning 2022 form which saw her set Irish records at 60m, 200m, 300m and 400m at the age of 19; the Tallaght AC athlete opened up this year by breaking her own Irish 200m indoor record with a time of 22.52.

Earlier on Saturday, Andrew Coscoran also got down to record-breaking business, improving both the Irish indoor and outdoor 1,500 metres with a time of 3:33.49 at the World Tour Final in Birmingham.

These were two of the longest-standing records in Irish athletics, Ray Flynn’s outdoor mark of 3:33.5 going back 41 years, clocked during the Dream Mile run in Oslo back in July 1982, with the previous indoor mark of 3:35.4 belonging to Marcus O’Sullivan since 1988, also clocked en route to a mile win in New Jersey in 1988.

Coscoran nailed third in a super-fast race, one place ahead of Luke McCann, who also ran a whopping new lifetime best of 3:34.76, also inside O’Sullivan’s indoor mark.

Equally impressive was the new Irish Under-20 record of 3:39.94 by Tyrone teenager Nicholas Griggs, who ran a magnificently paced race to nail seventh place – the 18 year-old now also running faster than both the existing indoor and outdoor record, the first Irish teenager to break 3:40.

Both Coscoran and McCann committed to the fast pace, set up for Josh Kerr to break his own British indoor mark. Instead, the Tokyo bronze medal winner faded to fifth, with Neil Gourley taking the win and that British record to 3:32.5.

For Coscoran, the 26-year-old from north Dublin and member of the Dublin Track Club coached by Feidhlim Kelly, it augers exceptionally well for next weekend’s European Indoor Championships, and likewise for McCann, the UCD student still only 24 and improving with almost every race.

Coscoran improved on his previous indoor best of 3:37.20, set in Lievin in France in 2021 while McCann improved his previous indoor best of 3:38.14, set in New York earlier this month.

Outdoors, Coscoran’s previous best was 3:35.43, set last September, McCann’s previous best of 3:35.65 run last July. Griggs improved his own Under-20 indoor mark of 3:43.71, set in Abbotstown last year, and was also inside the outdoor mark of 3:40.56 which Cian McPhillips clocked in 2021.