Remarkable Rhasidat Adeleke set two records over the weekend
Another weekend and another two records for sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke,'I'm still not a guru at the event, but I am kind of learning': Nigeria born Irish ace Adeleke insists there is more to come
On this occasion Adeleke was competing at the Tom Jones Memorial meeting in Florida and chopped huge amounts from her own national 200m and 400m records.
The 20-year-old opened on Friday evening by stopping the clock over 200m at 22.34 seconds, with the assistance of a legal 1.8m/s tailwind.
She finished in runner-up behind her University of Texas team-mate Julien Alfred, who won in 21.91, a national record for her country, St Lucia.
That improved on her indoor mark of 22.52, run at altitude in Albuquerque back in January. That was both an indoor and outright Irish record, the previous fastest mark outdoors being the 22.59 Adeleke ran in April last year.
Adeleke returned to the track on Saturday for the 400m and wrote her name in Irish athletics history by becoming the first woman from this island to break 50 seconds for the distance. The Irish woman clocked 49.90 seconds and was rapidly closing down in the final metres the American collegiate champion and University of Texas colleague Britton Wilson who won in 49.51.
Her time improved her own record of 50.33 seconds set indoors at Lubbock, Texas in February.
Two weekends ago, Adeleke was part of four University of Texas relay quartets, all of which set NCAA records in the 4x100, 4x200 and the sprint medley, before anchoring the 4x400m with a hand-timed split of 49.2 seconds.
