Rhasidat Adeleke finishes fourth in Diamond League 400m race in Oslo

When Rhasidat Adeleke entered the homestretch inside the sold-out Bislett Stadium on Thursday evening, a victory in her first individual 400 metres at the Oslo Diamond League appeared a little out of reach.

At this stage of the season, the World Championships in Tokyo still three months away, Adeleke by her own admission is not race sharp. Although in fading again to fourth, running 50.42 seconds, Adeleke clearly still has some work to do.

With victory on the night going to US newcomer Isabella Whittaker in 49.58 seconds, the 23-year-old making her first international appearance, the race wasn’t scorching fast, although Henriette Jaeger from Norway certainly delighted the home crowd when running a national record of 49.62 to nail second.

On a perfect evening for running inside the famous stadium, Adeleke started out well in lane six, appearing to judge her effort nicely – but was unable to find another gear in the last 100m, finishing well outside her Irish record of 49.07 clocked this time last year when winning silver at the European Championships in Rome.

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Amber Anning got past the 22-year-old Adeleke in the last 50m metres to claim third in 50.24, the British runner finishing fifth at the Paris Olympics last summer, one place behind Adeleke in fourth. She’s since won the World Indoor title.

Indeed the line-up featured five of the eight Olympic finalists from Paris last summer, including Poland’s Natalia Bukowiecka, née Kaczmarek, who finished sixth in 50.67.

“I have only just graduated college but my season is shaping up well, after a great indoors,” said Whittaker, who ran a US indoor record of 49.24 in March, another new addition to an already high-competitive women’s 400m.

Adeleke had raced a couple of Diamond League meetings over 200m, only this was the first true tests in her specialist event. It was the first of a double bill of Scandinavian stops on the Diamond League circuit, Adeleke also racing the 400m in Stockholm on Sunday evening. Whittaker, Jaeger and Anning will also line-up in the Swedish city, affording Adeleke with the chance to swiftly test herself against the same opposition.

Jaeger was leading the way into the straight, clearly fired up by the home crowd, and was only passed by Whittaker in the last 10m; the 21-year-old Jaeger fell to the track in her effort to hold on, a most impressive run from the 21-year-old, who ran 49.96 to finish eighth in the Olympic final.

Mark English was running soon afterwards in a stacked 800m, and after his Irish record-breaking exploits over the last two weeks, this time had to settle for seventh place in 1:44.33 – that race including three of the six fastest men of all time.

It was still the second fastest time the 32-year-old English, with victory going to Kenya’s Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi in 1:42.78, his season best, ahead of Mohamed Attaoui from Spain, who ran 1:42.90.

Passing halfway in a sensible but fast 49.79 seconds, the top six all run sub 1:44, English breaking that barrier for the first time with his 1:43.92 to take the win in Hengelo on Monday night. That had smashed his previous Irish record of 1:44.34 which he set in Bydgoszcz, Poland last month.

Meanwhile, the fourth and last of the new Grand Slam Track series of meetings in Los Angeles later this month has been cancelled amid reports it may have run into some financial difficulties. Andrew Coscoran and Sharlene Mawdsley were among the many athletes to share in the prizemoney, Coscoran pocketing $50,000 at the second meeting in Miami, with a total prize purse of $12.6 million for the four meetings. Event co-founder Michael Johnson remains confident that Grand Slam Track will continue in 2026.