Perfectly set up as one of the finals of the weekend, Rhasidat Adeleke is once again poised to go where no Irish athlete has gone before.
On her home track at the University of Texas in Austin, Adeleke cruised through to the final of the 400 metres at the NCAA Track and Field Championships – with that already becoming the first Irish woman to make an outdoor NCAA sprint individual final.
The Dublin sprinter, naturally, wants a lot more, that final a near certain showdown with Britton Wilson, who beat Adeleke to the NCAA Indoor title back in March.
Sophie O’Sullivan, daughter of Sonia, also put herself in perfect contention for the women’s 1,500m title, winning her semi-final in 4:09.58, just outside her best. The second semi-final was notably slower, Billah Jepkirui of Oklahoma winning in 4:17.76.
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It continues the rich vein of form for O’Sullivan, running with the University of Washington on the west coast, having run a best of 4.08.06 in her NCAA regional qualifiers.
The women’s NCAA championships were first staged outdoors in 1982, and in the four decades since just three Irish women have won outdoor titles; her mother Sonia winning the 3,000m, also for Villanova, in 1990 and 1991, Valerie McGovern winning the 5,000m in 1990 and later Mary Cullen in 2006.
Austin presented near perfect sprinting conditions – 81 degrees, 65 per cent humidity – Adeleke won the first semi-final in 49.86 seconds, easing up: still two months shy of 21, that’s the second fastest one-lap run of her life, after improving her Irish record to 49.54 last month (her sixth record this year), her previous best before that a 49.90.
Britton then won the second semi-final in 49.36, a full half a second faster, a meeting and stadium record. Already a World champion in the 4x400m relay with the US last summer, the 22-year-old Arkansas athlete is unquestionably the favourite, having run 49.13 last month.
But she won’t have it all her own way, Britton attempting a double in the 400m hurdles, also winning her semi-final there in 54.67. That final takes place 30 minutes after the 400m flat (9:02pm Saturday Texas time/3:02am Sunday Irish time). The next fastest qualifier was Nickisha Pryce, also of Arkansas, in 50.03.
Adeleke was chasing three titles with Texas, the first of which got off to a perfect start when they won the semi-final of the 4x100m relay in 41.55, improving their own American collegiate record, Adeleke cruising through the second last leg.
“It’s amazing, and it’s cool to get that momentum going to kind of give us energy for the rest of the championships,” Adeleke said. “I knew we had the lead, especially since Julien Alfred led us off.”
Things went wrong in the last event, however, Texas winning their semi-final of the 4x400m relay, only to be later disqualified for impeding in the changeover.
The Irish interest continues overnight, with Brian Fay of Raheny Shamrocks, also running with Washington, one of the favourites to win the men’s 5,000m
Only four Irish-born men have ever won individual outdoor titles; Ronnie Delany, John Lawlor (twice in the hammer) Eamonn Coghlan (twice in the 1,500m) plus Frank O’Mara. Sean Dollman and Alistair Cragg, both South African born before declaring for Ireland, also won three, Cragg the last of them with his 10,000m title in 2004.
Earlier, Barry Keane placed seventh in the men’s 10,000m final, another fine run from the student at Butler University, clocking 28:17.21 in the testing conditions for distance running.
