When Rhasidat Adeleke took over the baton on the second leg it felt like some of the stadium crowd hushed in anticipation. That reputation to dazzle and excite now precedes her, and with that Adeleke ran one of the fastest 400 metres split times in championship history to lead Ireland on to the medal podium at the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas.
It was Adeleke’s first senior championship medal, and surely not her last, the 21-year-old making sure the Irish quartet signed off on their visit to Nassau in sensational style, her 48.45 seconds leading the way to the bronze medal in the mixed 4x400m after a thrilling final showdown against reigning World Champions the USA and the much-revered Netherlands.
From Nassau direct to Paris, this event may have been mostly about Olympic qualification, but just as they’d done when winning Saturday’s heat to ensure their Paris berth, Cillín Greene, Adeleke, Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley combined again with fearless determination, finishing in another national record of 3:11.53, improving on their 3:12.50 from Saturday.
Adeleke’s split time of 48.45 seconds was the fastest ever recorded at the World Relays – and faster on the night than the reigning Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo from the Bahamas (49.54), and reigning World 400m champion Marileidy Paulino from the Dominican Republic (48.93). Faster too than Femke Bol, the Dutch world indoor record holder, who clocked 49.63 to hold off Mawdsley for the silver medal by just .08 of a second.
“I really appreciate my team-mates, Cillín gave it to me in a brilliant position so I just took that and built on it,” said Adeleke, the Dublin athlete further stamping her authority on one-lap running, her Irish record of 49.20 from June of last year her next obvious target.
“I just wanted to try my best to put Tom in the best position going forward. I was able to catch a couple of people and I knew Tom would be able to hold it and that Sharlene would finish well. And honestly, I’ve been to a lot of championships, and this one has the most energy, the people were so loud.”
One day after breaking the championship record in their heat, the USA did it again in the final, winning in 3:10.73 – the fastest ever time outside of a World Championships. Matthew Boling gave them an early lead on the first leg, then handed over to Lynna Irby-Jackson, who soon found Adeleke chasing her down, after she blew past Dutch rival Lieke Klaver, moving Ireland up from fourth to second.
Willington Wright gave the USA a bit more breathing room on the third leg, then he handed over to Kendall Ellis who anchored the team to victory. Behind, Bol just held off the challenge from Mawdsley to take second place in 3:11.45.
It does create something of a dilemma going into the two big championships this summer, the European Championships in Rome in early June, and the Paris Olympics starting at the end of July.
This result ensures Ireland’s qualification for Rome, the mixed relay a straight eight-team final on the opening night, which will likely rule out Adeleke and possibly Mawdsley too if they focus on the individual 400m, the heats of which are the following morning.
Likewise in Paris, the mixed relay heats and final are on the opening day of the athletics, while Adeleke’s obvious focus will be on her individual event.
Mawdsley has combined both before, and but that is a decision for another day. “I’ll be making the most of this, it’s a great start to the Olympic season and we couldn’t have asked for much more today,” Mawdsley said, the 25-year-old from Tipperary, like Adeleke, racing for the third time in two days.
“I don’t think we expected it at all, we couldn’t be happier,” said Greene, the 26-year-old from Galway enduring a long spell of injury after also running the Tokyo Olympics.
With 893 of the world’s finest sprinters from 54 countries descending on Nassau, qualification for the Paris was foremost on all their minds, and both the Irish women’s 4x400m and mixed 4x400m relay had achieved that goal in Saturday’s heats and then some, unquestionably two of the best relay performances in Irish athletics history.
“I’m very proud of this team and what we’ve built in the last couple of years,” said Barr, the 31-year-old from Waterford, who finished fourth in the 400m hurdles at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“We gave it absolutely everything we had today ... We always punch above our weight. We all come together as a team. It’s a big win for us, first of all to get Olympic qualification but secondly to go home with a medal is something of dreams.”
Just 30 minutes after that storming run on Sunday night, the women’s 4x400m team went into their final, finishing seventh in 3:30.9, with that gold medal also going to the USA in 3:21.70. Poland finished second there in 3:24.71, which meant Ireland’s national record of 3:24.38 on Saturday, with Adeleke and Mawdsley on board, held up as the second fastest time of the weekend.
Phil Healy ran the first leg in 52.38, with Róisín Harrison clocking 53.27, Lauren Cadden 53.09, before Sophie Becker anchored them with a 52.21 leg.
Only the top two in Saturday’s heats qualified automatically for Paris (the rest battling it out again for the remaining spots in Sunday’s repechage rounds), with Adeleke proving utterly pivotal to those victories on Saturday (running splits of 49.64 and 49.48), then leaving that sensational mark in the final, further underlining her status as one of the most exciting one-lap runners in the world.
Jack Raftery and Christopher O’Donnell completed the mixed squad, Róisín Harrison, Lauren Cadden and Rachel McCann also on the women’s squad, and they’ll likely feature at the European Championships in Rome in June, before Paris beckons.
