Silver for Rhasidat Adeleke in 400m at European Championships: ‘I wanted gold, I got silver so I can’t complain’
Interview with Rhasidat Adeleke after winning Silver in 400m at European Championships
It wasn’t all she wanted, but at this point in her career, it was enough. Enough to leave Rhasidat Adeleke beaming a bright, brilliant smile once the initial disappointment had subsided, once the realisation set in that she'd produced the best run of her life to win a European silver medal – all at the tender age of just 21.
Sometimes in sport, your best just isn’t enough. Sometimes all you can do is empty the tank, exhaust every fibre of your being, and live with the fact that someone else was just better on the night.
That was the case for Adeleke at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on Monday night, the Dubliner producing a massive Irish 400m record 49.07 to finish second to Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek, who clocked a Polish record of 48.98. Bronze going to Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands in 50.08, while Sharlene Mawdsley paid a heavy price for going out hard and came home eighth in 51.59.
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For Adeleke, there was disappointment mixed with pride, and justifiably so, given that as important as this event was, her eyes are trained on a much bigger one in Paris later this summer.
“I would have loved the gold, but I could have not made the final, there’s so many things that could have gone wrong,” she said. “I’ll take my blessing and hopefully one day I’ll be able to get my gold.”
Kaczmarek blazed through the opening 200m in 23.59, putting pressure on Adeleke in the lane inside, who at that point was one metre behind, splitting 23.69. “I wanted to make sure I always kept myself in contention, get to 200m, then make my move,” said Adeleke.
Then she did, Adeleke eating into the advantage around the final turn, drawing alongside and then slightly ahead of Kaczmarek with 100 metres to run. This was the battle everyone expected, and now the race was truly on, the pair shoulder to shoulder until midway down the home straight, at which point the slightest falter began to emerge in Adeleke’s stride, the effort finally taking its toll.
Perhaps the effort in helping Ireland to mixed relay gold was in there too, a race Kaczmarek had bypassed, with Adeleke admitting her legs were “a bit heavy” the day during her 400m semi-final.
Kaczmarek maintained her form with military precision in those crucial final metres, the 26-year-old world silver medallist proving too strong, edging Adeleke to gold. There was visible disappointment on Adeleke’s face in the aftermath, though that dissipated when she realised how fast she’d run – the 49.07 taking a big chunk off the Irish record of 49.20 she’d run to win the NCAA exactly a year ago.
“I really wanted to win, but my coach said before, ‘whatever we can do here, we’ll do.’ And to come here and run a personal best, 49.07, I think he’ll be happy. That was a fast race. I’m really, really happy.”
Ahead of the championships Adeleke had asked her coach, Edrick Floreal, if she would taper her training but was met with a swift no, his eyes trained eight weeks up the road to the Paris Olympics. “He said you can run low-49, high-48 without tapering so he knows what he’s saying,” she said. “All credit to him.”
Adeleke’s time was the fourth fastest in the world this year, and she knows she’s far from the finished product. “We’ve trained through this,” she said. “We’ll train again for the next few weeks and hopefully by Paris, we’ll be where we need to be. I didn’t get the gold, but hopefully I’ll get my chance again.”
Elsewhere, Nicola Tuthill finished ninth in the final of the women’s hammer, the 20-year-old Bandon athlete producing a best of 69.09m in her opening three throws, with only the top eight given another three throws.
Andrew Coscoran avoided some late-race carnage in the heats of the men’s 1500m to advance to tomorrow night’s final, the Balbriggan man finishing fifth in 3:38.52. There was no joy for Phil Healy, Nick Griggs, Louise Shanahan and Thomas Barr, who were all eliminated from their events during the morning session.
Barr missed out on the 400m hurdles final by just four hundredths of a second after finishing third in his semi-final in 49.61. “To be honest, it felt harder than yesterday, even though the time was a little bit slower, so maybe the body wasn’t as fresh as I would have liked,” he said.
Healy was below her best in the 200m heats, clocking 23.51 to finish fifth from a difficult inner lane draw. Griggs simply didn’t have the gears to contend with Europe’s best seniors in his 1500m heat, the 19-year-old finishing 14th in 3:46.66. Shanahan was well off the pace in her heat of the women’s 800m, the Leevale athlete coming home seventh in 2:04.81.
European Athletics Championships: Live, RTÉ Two/RTÉ Player, BBC Red Button
Irish in action, Tuesday (all times Irish)
9.45am: Men’s 4x400m heats
10.15am: Women’s 4x400m heats
11.00am: Men’s 4x100m heats
8.30pm: Anika Thompson, Laura Mooney, women’s 10,000m final
As it happened
- Rhasidat Adeleke claims silver in the 400m final, Sharlene Mawdsley finishes eighth
- Ninth for Nicola Tuthill in the hammer throw final
At 20 years of age, Nicola Tuthill has thrown 66.29 on her third attempt to take ninth place overall in the hammer throw final.
That is an amazing feat for the Bandon native.
David Gillick has been getting Rhasidat's thoughts on her achievement.
"I think we're forgetting she's 21 years of age. If Rhasidat was a footballer, you would be buying her for €100 million. We need to celebrate this. That's how good she is. It's a huge achievement, a silver medal at a European Championships field."
Watch the RTÉ panel's analysis of the race below.
Ireland have another medal! Adeleke comes out strongly and is neck and neck with Kaczmarek heading into the final 100m.
The Polish athlete just edges her out, however, and Adeleke has to settle for second place. A sensational performance from the Dubliner, who crosses the line in a new PB time of 49.07.
Gold medallist Kaczmarek also set a PB (48.98) with a phenomenal run.
Mawdsley is outclassed and will be disappointed to finish eighth, but that experience will stand to her.
"I'm hoping Sharlene nails the performance of her life and comes through and scalps. On paper, I think she can finish fifth but if she has the race of her life and the two girls are off, we could have another medal. So I'm going to go for first and third."
Speaking on the RTÉ panel alongside fellow Olympians Sonia O'Sullivan and Derval O'Rourke, Rob Heffernan is feeling optimistic as he looks ahead to the 400m final.
Last year, Sinéad Kissane sat down with the rising superstar of Irish athletics, Rhasidat Adeleke, to get the inside track at the University of Texas.
Ahead of tonight's 400m final, we recommend you take a couple of minutes to read that wide-ranging interview:
Ahead of Mawdsley and likely to pose the biggest threats will be Natalia Kaczmarek of Poland, Dutch athlete Lieke Klaver and Britain's Laviai Nielsen.
Two years ago, Kaczmarek took silver behind Femke Bol of the Netherlands, while Adeleke was fifth with Klaver one place further back.
