Everyone said it would take another Irish record to win the thing and so it proved, Rhasidat Adeleke once again going where no Irish athlete has gone before at the NCAA track and field championships.
Competing on her home track at the University of Texas in Austin, Adeleke produced a sensational win in the final of the 400 metres, with that becoming first Irish woman to win an outdoor NCAA sprint title.
The Dublin sprinter, still two months shy of 21, ran down the race favourite Britton Wilson in homestretch, her winning time of 49.20 seconds taking another sizeable chunk of her Irish record, an NCAA meeting record to boot.
Austin again presented near-perfect sprinting conditions, although there was a notable breeze, Adeleke half a stride down on Wilson, running for the University of Arkansas, as they entered the last 100 metres.
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Then Adeleke kicked for home, winning in 49.20 to Wilson’s 49.64, with that improving her Irish record of 49.54 from last month, her seventh record this year – inside the top 20 fastest times ever.
“The race was kind of a blur,” she said. “I just went out trusting myself. Not really sure what I went through the 200 mark, I just put myself into position coming into the home stretch, and it was the kick at the end, which is something I’ve been doing well all season.”
That time of 49.20 would have won the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
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Adeleke was later part of the Texas 4x100m relay team, helping Texas to win the NCAA women’s title outright.
Wilson had won her semi-final in 49.36, a full half a second faster that Adeleke, that at the time a meeting and stadium record. Already a World champion in the 4x400m relay with the US last summer, the 22-year-old Arkansas athlete was unquestionably the favourite, only Adeleke was simply not setting for second, where she finished indoors back in March.
The women’s NCAA championships were first staged outdoors in 1982, and in the four decades since just three Irish women have won outdoor titles; Sonia O’Sullivan winning the 3,000m, running for Villanova, in 1990 and 1991, Valerie McGovern winning the 5,000m in 1990 and later Mary Cullen in 2006.
Sophie O’Sullivan, daughter of Sonia, earlier finished 12th in the final of the 1,500m
