HAS HISTORIC SUCCESS ever felt as oddly queasy as this?
Let’s first pause to acknowledge what Rhasidat Adeleke has just done.
Adeleke tonight became only the third Irish athlete to qualify for an Olympic sprint final, after Bob Tisdall in 1932 and Thomas Barr in 2016. Given they achieved theirs over hurdles, Adeleke is in a paradigm of her own.
Our 2024 medal glut shouldn’t sate us to the point we ignore the rubicon Rhasidat Adeleke has just crossed.
But by the heights of her own standards and the negligible limits of her awesome talent, Adeleke didn’t cross her rubicon quickly enough, finishing second in the night’s first semi-final behind Bahrain’s Eid Salwa Naser.
The fact Salwa Naser is recently back from a two-year ban for violating drug-testing whereabouts rules and then coasted home in 49.08 – her fastest time since her ban was imposed – added a further knot to a night of tangled success.
“It was a very messy race,” Adeleke told RTÉ afterwards. “I’m just excited that I’m able to get into the final and fix everything for when I do get into the final.”
On her day, Adeleke is good enough to win an Olympic 400m medal, but there is a lot to fix if Friday is to be her day.
If Adeleke was nervous before the race, Lieke Klaver’s false start compounded those nerves.
“At first they held us really long and I think I was ready to go then,” she told RTÉ. “But when we went again I feel I was just thinking about it too much and didn’t execute my first 100m as I should have.”
Her instructions from her coach, Edrick Floréal, are to use her sprint speed to get out fast, and then fight to hold on for dear life down the home straight. Adeleke went out in 23.22, which is broadly close to the 23 second target set by Floréal.
Eid Naser, however, went out faster, in 23 seconds dead. Perhaps the expectation she would be ahead at this point spooked Adeleke.
“I didn’t execute my first 200m as I should have, but that’s all things we can fix for the final,” said Adeleke. “And I think I also panicked a little bit which made me break form really early but I’m excited, I’ve made the final and I can give it my best shot.”
Her tone while speaking to RTÉ didn’t quite betray excitement. Most concerning for Adeleke and her coach is the extent to which she faded at the end, running the final 100m in 14.51 seconds. Only Ayallah Butler, who finished sixth, was slower over the closing 100m than Adeleke. Of course the times alone may not tell the full story, and Adeleke may have kicked into conservation mode knowing she had probably done enough to fend off third-placed Henriette Jaeger for an automatic qualifying spot in the final.
After the race, Adeleke did not follow custom and walk through the mixed zone to speak to reporters. We were told she was too fatigued after the race to speak to the written media, having spoken to broadcasters. Her RTÉ interview certainly seemed to be missing some of the zest of her usual appearances.
The message from Adeleke’s team after the race is that she is feeling fine, but is putting all her energy into refuelling and recovering for Friday’s final.
The single biggest reproach to this nagging feeling is, of course, the fact that semi-finals are for getting over the line.
Nickisha Pryce – one of only three contenders to run faster than Adeleke this season prior to tonight – didn’t qualify for the final at all, flaming out by finishing fourth in her semi-final, albeit in a quicker time than Adeleke’s.
That semi-final was won by Marileidy Paulino, who looks to have the gold medal sewn up. Eid Naser’s sudden return to form may be her claim to silver. The bronze medal, though, is still to be fought for, with Natalia Kaczmarek, who pipped Adeleke to European gold in June, the strongest contender. She won her semi-final in 49.45, just ahead of Britain’s Amber Anning,
The assumption before the Games would be that Adeleke needed to dip below 49 seconds for the first time to win a medal, but Kaczmarek’s time was such that Adeleke might make a podium by matching her PB of 49.07.
But as Adeleke admits, she has a lot to fix between now and 7pm Irish time on Friday.
But in these Games of unfathomable yield, Rhasidat Adeleke has given Ireland another national occasion to anticipate.
This is a magnificent thing, even if tonight did not augur well for her medal hopes.
