18-year-old sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke is one of the brightest young stars in Irish sport, and her stock has only risen after a record breaking performance at the Big 12 Championships in New York this weekend.
Adeleke is currently on an athletic scholarship at the University of Texas and at Saturday night’s meet in Manhattan she broke Phil Healy’s Irish record in the 200m, as she ran a sensational 22.96 in the semi-final to break the previous record by 0.03 seconds.
She also broke the Irish U-20 and U-23 record for the 100m, with a 11.31 time that is only 0.03 off the Irish senior record (also held by Healy).
Healy recently qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in the mixed relay, and she tweeted Saturday night praising Adeleke.
She said that her records were there to be broken, and said she was excited to see what was to come in the future from Adeleke.
Dubliner Adeleke has impressed for several years now and her continually impressive performances will have Irish fans excited for the future of Irish track athletics. She took gold in both the 100m and 200m at the 2019 European Youth Olympics in Baku, and she only continues to come on leaps and bounds in those disciplines.
Adeleke’s performance on Saturday night in New York drew praise on Twitter from Irish sporting stars such as David Gillick, as well as from the Department of Sport.
Adeleke took home an impressive second place in the 100m final on a blustery day in Manhattan, running an 11.36 to take a silver. She was also part of the 4x100m team from Texas that came home in first earlier on Sunday afternoon.