As soon as Rhasidat Adeleke reached the Olympic rings painted halfway down the homestretch she turned off her engine. No point motoring on from there, not when that same section of the purple track will be pivotal in deciding who makes the Olympic 400 metres final.
That’s the next challenge facing the 21-year-old from Dublin after Adeleke booked her place in Wednesday’s three semi-finals (7.45pm Irish time) with a perfectly smooth one-lap run at the State de France – everything about her Olympic debut so far living up to expectations.
On a roasting Monday morning in Paris, Adeleke breezed through her opening-round heat to win in 50.09 seconds, easing up and looking around her as she crossed the line, ahead of Alexis Holmes from the USA, who was second in 50.35.
“That felt really calm and relaxed,” Adeleke said. “I was really excited to get out there. I’ve been here for a week, so I was kind of itching to run. But it felt amazing, felt really calm and I’m really excited for the next round.
“I went out at the right pace, I just kind of shut down the last 100m. I didn’t want to use too much energy, just wanted to do what I needed to qualify. So I don’t know exactly what percentage, but it didn’t feel like a really hard run.”
From the six heats, Adeleke qualified seventh fastest. Five women ahead of her ran sub 50 seconds, but among the medal contenders this was mostly a contest to decide who could progress with the least amount of effort.
The semi-final draws (and the races for the central lane draws in the final) will only be decided after Tuesday morning’s repechage round, where Sharlene Mawdsley and Sophie Becker get a second chance to progress – Mawdsley missing out by one place in her heat when improving her lifetime best to 50.01
Adeleke’s Irish record of 49.07, set when winning silver at the European Championships in Rome last month, wasn’t bettered in any of the six heats. She hit the 200m mark in 23.40, faster than her European final in Rome, and a similarly aggressive start can be expected on Wednesday evening.
She also raced to the exact instructions of her coach Edrick Floréal: “Yeah, I just wanted to see where I could relax, shut down. That’s what my coach told me to do, as soon as you can shut down, shut down. We have two more rounds, so, well hopefully we’ll be looking forward to that.”
The only nervous moment came just after the first starting gun, a false start for Nicole Caicedo from Ecuador resulting in her disqualification.
On making her Olympic debut, Adeleke added: “Sometimes it’s hard to comprehend what it really is because I guess I’ve been building up to this for so long. My goal wasn’t just to come to the Olympics, my goal was to do something special. And that’s what my goal will remain.”
The first three in each heat went straight into the semi-finals, all the rest into the four repechage rounds on Tuesday morning (10.20am Irish time), where only the winners progress, plus the two fastest losers.
Mawdsley will certainly fancy her chances after just missing out on a semi-final in running a new personal best by .01, clocking 50.71 to finish fourth in her heat. It was won by 2023 world champion Marileidy Paulino from the Dominican Republic, who looked superb when winning in 49.42, the fastest qualifier.
“It’s bittersweet,” said Mawdsley, who lost out on third to Susanne Gogl-Walli of Austria, who also denied her a place in the final of the World Indoors in March, claiming the Tipperary athlete had obstructed her.
“You run a PB, it’s the standard for next year’s Worlds, and you don’t make the semi-final. But I’m happy, I think I really committed to it. Had I been in a different heat I would have qualified automatically, which is a bit annoying, but we all know I love running, so I have another round to try and get into the semi.”
Becker was drawn in heat one with the likes of 2019 world champion Salwa Eid Naser from Bahrain for company. Naser took the win as expected, laying down an early marker with the first sub-50 clocking of the heats, running 49.91, with Becker sixth in 51.84.
At the last Diamond League meeting in London, 23-year-old Nickisha Pryce from Jamaica won in a new national record of 48.57, the fastest time in the world this year. She won her heat in 50.02.
In the third heat, Britain’s Amber Anning looked impressive when taking the win in 49.68, ahead of Lieke Klaver, the Dutch runner clocking 49.96. Heat four produced another sub-50 clocking, won by Poland’s European champion Natalia Kaczmarek in 49.98.
As was suspected, two-time defending champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo from the Bahamas pulled up injured in heat four, although she did finish. So come Friday night there will be a new Olympic champion in this event for the first time since 2012.
