Rhasidat Adeleke has declared her availability for next month’s World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China, significantly boosting Ireland’s prospects of qualifying at least two relay teams for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September.
Adeleke played a major role in Ireland qualifying a women’s 4x400m and mixed 4x400m for last year’s Paris Olympics, running sub-50 second splits on the second leg in both events at the 2024 World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas last May.
The Tallaght AC superstar will be joined in Guangzhou by three other members of the women’s 4x400m who then finished a close fourth in Paris, with Sharlene Mawdsley (Newport AC), Sophie Becker (Raheny Shamrock) and Phil Healy (Bandon AC) also all listed for the mixed 4x400m team.
Guangzhou will host the two-day competition on May 10th-11th, and the top 14 teams in each event will automatically qualify for the World Championships.
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The 14-strong team also includes a men’s 4x400m relay team, which features Chris O’Donnell from North Sligo, also part of the mixed 4x400m team who won gold at the European Athletics Championships in Rome last June. The Grange native is part of both the men’s and mixed squads. Cillín Greene of Galway City Harriers, also part of the mixed 4x400m team that won bronze in the Bahamas, is named in both mixed and men’s teams.
Ireland won their heats in both the women’s and mixed 4x400m relay in the Bahamas. Adeleke also ran the second leg in the mixed 4x400m final, where Ireland won bronze. Her time of 48.45 seconds was the fastest 400m split time in the event, ahead of World and subsequent Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino, who clocked 48.93.
This Friday, the 22-year-old Adeleke returns to the Tom Jones Memorial meeting in Gainesville, Florida, racing the 200m. At the same meeting in 2023 she set her current Irish record of 22.34, one of her few marks to survive further improvement last summer.
The entries there include Julien Alfred from St Lucia, her training partner in Texas and the Olympic 100m champion, and the Jamaican pair of Nickisha Pryce and Stacey Ann Williams.
It’s unclear if Adeleke will have an individual 400m race before Guangzhou.
Ireland team for World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China (May 10th-11th): Rhasidat Adeleke, Sharlene Mawdsley, Sophie Becker, Phil Healy, Rachel McCann, Lauren Cadden, Kate O’Connell, Cillín Greene, Conor Kelly, Marcus Lawler, Jack Raftery, David Bosch, Chris O’Donnell, Callum Baird.
