Rhasidat Adeleke may need to improve on lifetime best in first of many dates with destiny

Natural raw athletics talent invariably presents itself at a tender age, and that is definitely the case here. A national senior sprint champion while still a teenager, soon a national record holder across a range of sprint events, both indoors and out, this has been the fastest 400m season of her life.

If she needs any further introduction her name is Marileidy Paulino, the 26-year-old from the Dominican Republic, the clear favourite to win the World Championship gold medal inside the National Athletics Stadium, Budapest on Wednesday night (8.35pm Irish time).

After that things look far less predictable, with seven other women chasing two more medals. Rhasidat Adeleke is in there among them – one lap away from once again going where no Irish woman has gone before.

It’s Adeleke’s first global championship final, a week shy of her 21st birthday. The first and only Irish athlete to win a medal of any colour in any outdoor global sprint event was Bob Tisdall, who won gold in the 400m hurdles back in the 1932 Olympics. That’s how rare they are.

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Lining up in lane four, all the top medal contenders to her outside, she may well need to improve on that lifetime best of 49.20 to make the podium. Either way it promises to be thrilling and close.

Two months shy of 27, Paulino has already won five global championships medals, between the 400m and relays, and was runner-up in the World Championship 400m final last year and the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021 (behind Shaune Miller-Uibo from the Bahamas, only now back racing after the birth of her son in April).

A devout Christian, Paulino first showed her talent as a young teenager growing up in the small village of Don Gregorion in the Dominican Republic, the eastern half of the Caribbean island shared with Haiti. Looking formidable in her semi-final, winning in 49.54 (ahead of Adeleke’s 49.87). Currently employed as a corporal in the Dominican Air Force, effectively allowing her to train full-time, she’ll start in lane seven.

For Adeleke, who recently gave up her last year of eligibility at the University of Texas to race professionally, the final tactics are clear: get out faster than her heat and semi-final, then leave nothing on the track from there.

“I just need to go out hard and use my 200m speed,” she said. “I was too comfortable in the first 200m [of the semi-final], and I’ll just fix that part. I probably had a lot of energy at the end. And it’s really about just distributing that properly.

[ Rhasidat Adeleke finishes second in her semi-final with a time of 49.87 ]

“It’s always amazing to make a global final. I don’t want to put too much pressure on. I know what I can do.”

Adeleke qualified as the equal-fourth fastest from the semi-finals, her lifetime best of 49.20 set in June the second fastest of the lot; at 20 she’s also the youngest. On world rankings (based on times and placings throughout the season) she is 10th.

“I just focus on myself, my own race,” she added. “I was just being a bit too comfortable [in the semi-final], way too conservative. But I knew I was strong. I’m definitely getting back in shape, looking forward to the final. I feel like I can compete against the best, and it’s anyone’s medal.”

She is the first Irish presence in an outdoor final of a World Championship sprint event since Berlin in 2009, when David Gillick (400m) and Derval O’Rourke (100m hurdles) both made their final showdowns.

Others are sure to have a say: Natalia Kaczmarek from Poland won her semi-final in a telling 49.50, ahead of Sada Williams from Barbados, who looked every bit as impressive in a new national record of 49.58. Dutch champion Lieke Klaver won the second semi-final in 49.87, her ambition is sure to tell in that final showdown too.

Those semi-finals were only Adeleke’s fourth race in 10 weeks since that sensational victory at the American NCAA Championships, and Irish record of 49.20. Now Wednesday evening’s final presents the chance to step on to that global podium. A first of many dates with destiny.

THE FINAL SHOWDOWN

Lane 2: Cynthia Bolingo (Belgium)

Personal best: 49.96 Season best: 49.96 Age: 30; World Ranking: 18

A European Indoor medal winner, also running the fastest time of her life this season.

Lane 3: Candice McLeod Jamaica

Personal best: 49.51 Season best: 50.19 Age: 26 World Ranking: 7

Seventh in the final last time out, a World and Olympic medal winner in the relays.

Lane 4: Rhasidat Adeleke (Ireland)

Personal best: 49.20 Season best: 49.20 Age: 20 World Ranking: 10

Her first global championship final, and first Irish sprint finalist in 14 years, will certainly press hard for a medal.

Lane 5: Lieke Klaver (Netherlands)

Personal best: 49.81 Season best: 49.81 Age: 25 World Ranking: 6

Also a European champion, and World relay medallist, was fourth last time out in Oregon.

Lane 6: Natalia Kaczmarek (Poland)

Personal best: 49.48 Season best: 49.48 Age: 25 World Ranking: 2

A European champion and Olympic relay medal winner, will definitely fancy a medal.

Lane 7: Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic)

Personal best: 48.98 Season best: 48.98 Age: 26 World Ranking: 1

Unquestionably the woman to beat, runner-up last time and at the Tokyo Olympics.

Lane 8: Sada Williams (Barbados)

Personal best: 49.58 Season best: 49.58 Age: 25 World Ranking: 4

Third last time out in Oregon last, in the form of her life now too.

Lane 9: Talitha Diggs (USA)

Personal best: 49.93 Season best: 49.93 Age: 21 World Ranking: 27

Well known to Adeleke from the NCAA racing scene, also capable of sneaking a medal.