ONCE MORE UNTO the breach for Rhasidat Adeleke, who will end her outdoor season tonight by renewing acquaintances with many of her Olympic rivals.
Adeleke runs in the 400m at the Diamond League final in Brussels tonight [Live Virgin Media 2; 7.04pm Irish time] where she will once again share a call room with Marileidy Paulino and Salwa Eid Naser, the respective gold and silver medalists from the final in Paris.
Bronze medalist Natalia Kaczmarek, however, won’t be lining up, having decided to end her season at the start of September.
Adeleke’s rivalry with Kaczmarek stretches back to the European Championship at the start of the summer, when the Polish athlete pipped Adeleke to the gold medal in Rome.
Other recognisable names in the final include Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands, Alexis Holmes of USA, and Sada Williams of Barbados.
It’s not Adeleke’s first competitive outing since the Olympic final: she ran at the Diamond League event in Silesia, where she again finished fourth behind Paulino, Eid Naser, and Kaczmarek.
Athletes qualified for their respective Diamond League finals by accruing points across 14 regular season events. Adeleke’s best result was victory at Monaco in July, clocking 49:17. To her own disappointment, she didn’t lower that time at the Olympic Games.
Also not in the 400m field today is the Olympic champion and world record holder over hurdles, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
The American was initially announced as racing the 200m and 400m flat in Brussels as a wildcard, which led to a backlash that pointed out she was not actually eligible for a wildcard under the competition’s own rules, as she had not competed at a Diamond League meet at all across 2024.
Hence the organisers have pulled her from Adeleke’s final, but she will race in an exhibition 400m event to be run immediately prior to the official event. Such is her star power, American broadcaster NBC have adjusted their broadcast window to ensure her race is shown.
This is partly because it’s relatively rare to see McLaughlin-Levrone race at all: the Olympics were just her fifth event of the year. Though McLaughlin-Levrone has prioritised hurdles, she ran the 400m flat in July of last year, clocking 48.74, the second-fastest time in American history and the 12th-fastest global time ever.
Adeleke is the only Irish athlete involved across two days’ action in Brussels, where highlights will include Armand Duplantis’ latest world record attempt in the pole vault, while shock Olympic champion Cole Hocker will again meet Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the men’s 1500m final.
Each winner receives $30,000 and a guaranteed wild card entry to next year’s world championship in Tokyo.
On TV: Friday and Saturday from 7pm; Virgin Media Two
