A near complete reprise of the Olympic 400 metres final, and despite a distinctly more audacious run by Rhasidat Adeleke it was ultimately the same result – another fourth place and her effort utterly spent.
In her first race since the Paris showdown just over two weeks ago, Adeleke lined up in the Silesia Diamond League meeting in Poland on Sunday alongside the three women who had made the Olympic podium – and they once again filled the same three places just ahead of her.
In finishing fourth this time, Adeleke held absolutely nothing back, tearing around the opening 100m in 11.80 seconds in lane seven to take a lead on Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic and Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser, who won gold and silver in Paris.
Adeleke also passed the 200m faster than she did in Paris, and although Paulino and Naser moved up ominously alongside her around the final bend, the Dublin sprinter was still well in contention for third.
The bird-shaped obsession that drives James Crombie, one of Ireland’s best sports photographers
Ciara Mageean: ‘I just felt numb. It wasn’t even sadness, it was just emptiness’
No sporting comeback is entirely risk-free, but always worth the gamble
Sonia O’Sullivan: A jog down Olympic memory lane shows how far Irish athletes have come
Down the home stretch, where the current of lactic acid is at its strongest, Adeleke slowly and then suddenly began to tie up, her old rival and home favourite Natalia Kaczmarek from Poland moving from sixth to third in that last 100m.
Paulino took the win in 48.66 seconds, the Olympic champion running a meeting record in the process, with Naser second in 49.23, ahead of Kaczmarek’s 49.95, just ahead of Adeleke, who finished in 50 seconds flat.
Adeleke, who turns 22 on Thursday, will have one more race before her season is over, running the 400m at the Diamond League final in Brussels on September 13th. In Paris, Adeleke finished fourth in 49.28 seconds, with Kaczmarek just .30 ahead of her to win bronze.
Kaczmarek, who also beat Adeleke to the European title in Rome in June, admitted afterwards she was running tired and won’t be racing in Brussels, where Paulino and Naser are likely to meet again too.
Paulino also spoke of some post-Olympic fatigue: “Before the race, all I could think of was getting through to the finish line and running a decent time. Now, I am definitely looking forward to the end of this season.”
Adeleke only arrived into Silesia from her Texas training base earlier on Sunday, and spoke afterwards about her hope to still make some further progress in her final race in Brussels.
Naser was competing in Silesia despite the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) imposing a 12-month ban on the Bahrain Athletics Association (BAA) for “serious anti-doping rule violations” and “historical breaches of the World Athletics anti-doping rules” just eight months before the Paris Olympics.
Naser however was still free to race for the rest of the season, as the Diamond League is not part of the World Athletics Series events.
Earlier, Jakob Ingebrigtsen shattered one of the longest-standing track world records as he clocked a staggering 7:17.55 for the 3,000m, taking more than three seconds off the mark of 7:20.67 set by Kenya’s Daniel Komen in 1996.
It was a huge performance for the 23-year-old Norwegian who lost his Olympic 1,500m title in Paris earlier this month, before he bounced back to win gold in the 5,000m.
Already third on the world all-time list with the 7:23.63 he ran in Eugene last year, he knew there was a big gap even to the second-best performance of 7:23.09, set by Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999.
But on this day Ingebrigtsen became a history man, moving clear of the field over the final lap. Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi, the Olympic 10,000m silver medallist, produced the third best performance of all time as he crossed second in 7:21.28. In the same race, Nick Griggs, still only 19, finished 12th in 7:39.52, just outside his personal best and Irish under-23 record of 7:36.59.
“I was hoping to challenge the world record here, but based on my training, I can never predict exactly what kind of time I am capable of,” said Ingebrigtsen. “I would not have imagined I could run 7:17, though.”
Almost two hours later, Mondo Duplantis set the second world record of the afternoon day when he cleared 6.26m in the pole vault, Sweden’s Olympic champion adding one centimetre to the 6.25m he cleared in Paris.
The 24-year-old Duplantis failed his first attempt, before soaring clear on his second try. It was also his 10th time to break the world record.
Sarah Healy ran 3:59.65 to finish fifth in the women’s 1,500m, Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji taking the win in 3:57.08
Showing no sign of any post-Paris fatigue, Femke Bol also ran a meeting record in the women’s 400m hurdles, the Dutch star clocking 52.13, after Karsten Warholm of Norway did likewise in the men’s event, running 46.95.
Women’s 400m result
1. Marileidy Paulino 48.66
2. Salwa Eid Naser 49.23
3. Natalia Kaczmarek 49.95
4. Rhasidat Adeleke 50.00
5. Alexis Holmes 50.01
6. Henriette Jaeger 50.33
7. Lieke Klaver 50.46
8. Sada Williams 50.82
9. Laviai Nielsen 51.02
