There’s a few lads on here who are mighty uncomfortable of late.
Two more races hopefully this season for Rhasidat
Cathal Dennehy: The key areas Rhasidat Adeleke can work on to bag the…
Today at 01:30
Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke before the 400m final at the Stade de France during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games. Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Not long after Rhasidat Adeleke crossed the line in the Olympic 400m final, the 21-year-old was asked to chisel into the details. But once she’d done it, having pointed out some slight imperfections, she added something that displayed a wisdom beyond her years.
“Honestly, it’s over now, and I’ve just got to look forward.” For Adeleke, that process begins by getting right back on track. She will race twice more this season: over 400m at the Silesia Diamond League on August 25 and at the Diamond League final in Brussels on September 13.
For Adeleke, this is a chance to finish another breakthrough season with a flourish while expunging any lingering frustration. Following Thomas Barr’s fourth-place finish at the 2016 Olympics, Sonia O’Sullivan said the best thing he could do was to race and try to beat some of the medallists. O’Sullivan expressed a similar sentiment about Adeleke in Paris; this is territory the Olympic silver medallist knows well.
In 1992, O’Sullivan finished fourth in the Olympic 3,000m in Barcelona at the age of just 22. In Zurich two weeks later, she beat Olympic silver medallist Tatyana Dorovskikh and bronze medallist Angela Chalmers. O’Sullivan noted those post-Games results gave her a key jolt of confidence as she headed into the off-season, helping her reach a new level in 1993.
For Adeleke, there’s a similar opportunity now before the focus shifts to 2025 – a year laden with medal opportunities, with both the European and World Indoors in March and World Championships in September.
It was a huge first Olympics for Adeleke, her 400m final the second-most-watched event by Irish audiences. In the aftermath, she didn’t want to be consoled with look-on-the-bright-side platitudes.
“Some people come here to participate and are just happy to be at the Olympics, their goal is to become an Olympian. I knew what I was capable of. I was definitely looking at a podium. I definitely wouldn’t be happy coming fourth and my coach knows I could’ve got on that podium.”
Adeleke knew it too, and it rankled that she hadn’t run to her potential. Her 49.28 was the fourth quickest time of her career. The gold medal, won by Marileidy Paulino in 48.17, was out of reach for her at this stage. The silver, won by Salwa Eid Naser in 48.53, would also have required a big jump. But the bronze, won by Natalia Kaczmarek in 48.98, was there for the taking. Adeleke ran 49.07 at the Europeans in June, an event she trained through, her coach’s focus solely on having her at her best in Paris.
At the World Relays in May, she split a blazing 48.45 to help Ireland to mixed 4x400m bronze. That was with a rolling start, which gives a benefit of 0.3-0.5. The point? Adeleke can undoubtedly run well under 49 seconds. She just hasn’t done it yet. She’d never use youth as an excuse, but there’s no ignoring that Paulino (27), Naser (26) and Kaczmarek (26) are five or six years older. That might have been decisive. All are far more experienced at distributing their energy most efficiently over 400m, a race that requires a delicate balance of give and take across its phases, one that requires much practice before it’s mastered.
Then there is Adeleke’s relatively underdeveloped speed endurance – a more trainable asset than raw speed. An athlete’s 100m ability is primarily governed by natural talent, technical efficiency and power output. The more force you put into the track and the better your mechanics, the faster you run.
But the ability to maintain a high speed is very different. That engine can be developed and improved for many years through long, lung-bursting workouts, the kind sprinters love to hate. It’s why 400m runners peak later than 100m runners. Speed is more inherent. Endurance is more trainable.
The women’s 400m is also a more aerobic event than the men’s, given the extra race time, and so medals are won more by your strength in the last 100m than mid-race speed. By now, the three medallists have completed that part of the performance jigsaw. Adeleke’s remains a work in progress. Still, she can likely better utilise what she already has.
Paulino has a 100m best of 11.38 and 200m best of 22.36. Naser has run 11.24 and 22.51. Kaczmarek 11.54 and 22.70. Adeleke has better speed than all three, having run 11.13 and 22.34 this year. Part of that is natural, but part is due to the philosophy of her coach, Edrick Floreal.
“We’re working on sprint mechanics and it’s really paid off,” he told me earlier this year. “It’s a thing of beauty when she does it well. We’re working on her being a lot faster, to be a quarter-miler with a skillset other people don’t have.”
Floreal believes Adeleke can go sub-22 for 200m and her wind-assisted 100m time of 10.84 from April suggests that’s realistic. “That would really change the way she runs the 400m,” he said.
It would make her a lot like Shaunae Miller-Uibo, the Bahamian two-time Olympic 400m champion whose speed was so good she was able to win a world bronze medal over 200m. There were certainly stronger athletes in the last 50m than Miller-Uibo but, typically, her races were already won by that point.
For Adeleke, utilising her speed will be key to winning a global 400m medal. One of the key areas Floreal will likely focus on in their debrief is the first 100m. Adeleke’s speed is so superior to most rivals that she would be able to go through that section quicker than them while at a similar percentage of effort. In the Olympic final, she ultimately didn’t do that.
She was just fifth fastest to both 50m (6.58) and 100m (12.01) and whether that was by accident or her own design, she didn’t make full use of her best weapon during the part of the race where it’s most effective. Athletes have about six seconds of ATP energy to use at the start of the race – the body’s rocket fuel – but once it’s gone it’s gone. You can’t spend it in segments. For this reason, most 400m athletes run the first 50 metres all out before starting to cruise.
Adeleke hit 200m as fourth fastest in 23.29, with Paulino quickest in 22.81 followed by Naser (23.12) and Kaczmarek (23.22). That was the same order they finished in and while Adeleke did get up to third at 300m, her slight lead of 0.15 over Kaczmarek was never going to be enough to hold off the Pole – who has inferior speed but better special endurance.
This is not to suggest Adeleke ran a bad race. Overall, it was one of her best. But she will know that at this level, imperfections are often the difference between third and fourth. In the last 100m, technique is everything, but Adeleke said she “panicked” a little and “started to strain” at that point.
At the finish, she was left with a familiar feeling, the same fourth place as in last year’s world final. “I was just staring at the screen for a minute, ‘Oh my God, no way I came fourth again,’” she said. “I’m like, ‘Can someone just give me the medal?’”
Amid the frustration, she managed a much-needed laugh, and there was plenty of optimism: an awareness that this just wasn’t her time, but with her talent, trajectory and work ethic, she’d get there eventually.
“I didn’t achieve my dreams today,” she said. “But in the future, I just hope there are more podiums up there and I’ll be able to perform at my best when it’s most important.”
Given her ability and ambition, it just seems a matter of time.
Is there any possibility of her running the 200 metres given her 200 times?
They’re fast for a 400m runner but not elite for a 200m runner
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She’ll continue improving over 400m. I don’t think she has as much 200m improvement in her
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You can just imagine what she is capable of running in 4 years time. She will run olympics at her peak years of 25 and 29. I reckon she will be strong fav for gold at next olympics if she can stay injury free.
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I’m chalking this lady down as an LA Olympian. She wasn’t far off this year and is still only a child. Interesting to see how she goes in Lima in a couple of weeks
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The high altitude should help her sail through the air
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Second Captains covered this on Monday but this lad coached 2 of the first 3 home in the Women’s Sprint Hurdles final. Imagine what he could have done with Sarah Lavin if given the chance and if we invested in Irish coaching properly
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McLaughlin-Levrone’s performance was emblematic of the Paris quality in another way. For more than a century, scoring tables have been used to compare results and progression achieved in different athletic events, taking in various statistical data and rate of improvement.
Her world record of 50.37 seconds was worth 1322 on the scoring tables, the highest in women’s athletics history. It moved her ahead of the 1314 score for Florence Griffith-Joyner and her 100m world record of 10.49 seconds which still stands from 1988. The third-highest score is McLaughlin-Levrone’s previous world record of 50.68 set at the US Olympic trials in June.
Dennehy mentioned this on Monday. I’m torn between it being absolutely spectacular or completely dodgy
She’s a generational talent. Set a state record at 14. She’s earned the benefit of the doubt but the lack of races does raise a flag I think.
Both I’d say is the answer.
Being coached by Kersee is another flag. There’s a question.
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Israel has lowered his own Irish Record to 10.12 in London. Looks a fairly grim fixture
https://twitter.com/hispanista/status/1825210240264024318?t=XBwQgIWQFyaT_gLyD5uz_g&s=19
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The graphics and music as well.
It’s like a grainy clip from Sports Stadium.
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Luke McCann runs in the 1500m. Looks like no elite women’s 400m so no Rhasidat. She’s entered to run in Silesia
https://silesia.diamondleague.com/home/
Its live on VM2 and BBC2 later this evening. BBC2 probably better due to no ad breaks
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