DAY 3 EVENING SESSION: AWESOME ADELEKE ADVANCES TO WORLD 400M FINAL
Rhasidat Adeleke (Tallaght AC) has booked her place in Wednesday’s 400m final at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest with an impressive 49.87 second place finish in this evening’s semi-final.
Running from lane five, the Irish 400m record holder looked very controlled over the opening 200m, before unleashing a devastating final kick down the home straight to claim second place behind Olympic silver medallist Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic (49.54).
Speaking after the race, Adeleke said: “I went out a bit slow and was a bit further back than I planned, but I know what to change for the final and I’m excited for it”.
Adeleke will return to the track for her first world senior final on Wednesday evening at 8.35pm (Irish time).
Sharlene Mawdsley (Newport AC) also went in this evening’s 400m semi-finals, bowing out of her individual 400m with another brilliant display of 51.78 having posted a new lifetime best of 51.17 in yesterday’s heats.
The Tipperary athlete played a leading role in Ireland’s sixth place finish in Saturday’s mixed relay final and could yet return for her fifth appearance of the week with the women’s 4x400m relay team set to take to the track on Saturday.
Speaking after the race, Mawdsley said: “It’s been an amazing week. I really can’t believe what I’ve produced. I believed in myself this week and I’ve been rewarded with a personal best and an individual semi-final. I trusted my training and that I could produce back-to-back performances so it’s given me great confidence that I can compete at this level consistently”.
Day 3 Results Summary
- Rhasidat Adeleke – Women’s 400m – Semi Final 1: 49.87 Q
- Sharlene Mawdsley – Women’s 400m – Semi-Final 2: 51.75 (22nd overall)
Day 4 – Tuesday August 22nd
The fourth day of these championships will see a further three Irish athletes make their Budapest debuts with Limerick’s Sarah Lavin leading the charge in the first of the 100m hurdles heats from 5.40pm.
Lavin is no stranger to world finals having made the world indoor 60mH final in Belgrade last year, before following up that milestone with a superb European Games bronze medal in Poland earlier this summer.
The Emerald AC athlete looked brimming with confidence at nationals and her recent 12.67 confirmed her place among the world’s elite of 100m hurdling.
Mark English returns for the heats of the 800m from 6.28pm (Irish time) and will be joined by the in-form and newly crowned national champion John Fitzsimons (Kildare AC) who is drawn in the third of the 800m heats.
All eyes will then turn to the women’s 1500m final where Ciara Mageean will go in search of her own bit of Irish athletics history at 8.30pm Irish time.
The Portaferry athlete goes into the final ranked 9th on her season’s best of 3:56.63 NR. All but two of Mageean’s rivals in tomorrow’s final have broken 4-minutes this season and with gold medal favourite Faith Kipyegon boasting a personal best of 3:49.11, it will likely take a lifetime best from Mageean to break into the top six places.
Evening – Tuesday August 22nd
- Sarah Lavin – Women’s 100m Hurdles – Round One (H1) – 17:40 (18:40)
- Mark English – Men’s 800m – Round One (H2) – 18:28 (19:28)
- John Fitzsimons – Men’s 800m – Round One (H3) – 18:36 (19:36)
- Ciara Mageean - Women’s 1500m – Final – 20:31 (21:31)
NOTES