Paul Fennessy

JOHNNY FOX has seen it all at 83 years old.

Having been involved in athletics to some degree since the 1950s, he has witnessed countless talented Irish athletes come and go.

Among the standouts during all those decades of coaching is a 20-year-old who is one of Ireland’s top medal prospects at the World Championships in Budapest over the coming days.

Rhasidat Adeleke was just 12 when she first met Fox, having been sent to Tallaght Athletic Club where Fox has spent over 50 years volunteering, on the recommendation of her school in Terenure.

Straight away, the experienced coach knew he had a special talent on his hands and the pair enjoyed significant success in the ensuing five years.

“She won everything she went in for,” he tells The42. “She had all the attributes to become a champion and we knew from the start that she was going to go places.

“Her distances were 60m and 100m. She’d do 200m, but she wouldn’t be that happy doing it, it was a bit long for her [initially].

“We suggested that she do 400m, but that would have been out of the question at that stage. But we knew from the start that she could make a good 400m or 800m runner. Because she had the speed, she had the legs, she had everything going for her.

“But the main thing she has is self-belief. She believes in herself.”

2018 was the year a 15-year-old Adeleke announced herself as a talent to watch at international level. She was crowned European U18 200m champion and also helped the Ireland Women’s 4x100m Relay team to silver at the World U20 Athletics Championships, though frustratingly missed the final after pulling her hamstring while competing in the semis.

The young Irish sprinter of Nigerian ancestry has built on this early promise ever since, winning gold in the 100m and 200m events at the European U20 Championships, while also enjoying an outstanding college career, claiming multiple titles since moving to America on a scholarship at the University of Texas in 2021.

In between her stint under the tutelage of Fox and the Stateside adventure, Adeleke also benefitted from working with Daniel Kilgallon, the highly respected coach from Mayo who has guided a number of Ireland’s top sprinters in recent years.

“She has run times literally that one couldn’t imagine and she’s going into competition in the World Championships as a 20-year-old, ranked third in the competition,” says Pierce O’Callaghan, a former athlete, who is now an international sports consultant and sports historian.

“It’s dizzying times for Irish athletics, we’ve never had an athlete, particularly in a sprint event, and particularly so young, who has rocketed up the world rankings as quickly as she has done.”

While acknowledging the pressure on her shoulders among other caveats, O’Callaghan believes Adeleke could potentially win a medal in Budapest.

“She’s ranked third in the competition, yes, we have to look at her and say that she is certainly a medal prospect, but she has had a long year. She ran for the college and she ran so many competitions this year, it remains to be seen how fresh she will be going into the championships.”

Last month, Adeleke announced her decision to turn professional, opting out of her remaining eligibility with the University of Texas.

She will, however, continue working with her college coach Edrick Floreal.

A recently announced lucrative deal with Nike was the icing on the cake to accentuate a remarkably successful period.

Rhasidat Adeleke of Texas celebrates with teammates after winning the 400m women's race. Stephen Spellman / INPHO Stephen Spellman / INPHO / INPHO

Her stellar college career included claiming the NCAA 400m title back in June in an Irish record time of 49.20.

She also won two NCAA titles at the US college national championships, adding 4×100 relay gold to her individual 400m success, as well as helping the Texas Longhorns to win the overall title.

Most crucially, the decision to go professional will enable her to have the best possible preparation for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

“That’s why she went pro, so she could control her season,” explains O’Callaghan. “The reality is when you’re on a US scholarship, you’re responsible to the college, they want to get points, they want to get the promotion, you’ve got to run week in week out and she would have run 200s and 400s. So they would have got their pound of bacon out of her, for sure.”

While people in Irish athletics have long held high hopes for Adeleke, O’Callaghan cites the moment she broke the 50-second barrier in the 400m as being key to the rest of the world beginning to sit up and take notice.

“To run 49.2, when you go through all the medalists in the World Championships, she would have medaled every single edition of the World Championships with her best time.
So that puts it into context and the 400m is such a competitive event.

“You look at the Americans and the Caribbean athletes, and she’s right up there with them. And the fact that Sydney McLaughlin has pulled out, just makes it better for her and ranks her third going into the competition.”

Moreover, in elite sports, having the right mindset is equally as important as supreme talent. And Adeleke has demonstrated her prowess mentally as well as physically, notably in how she has been willing to move out of her comfort zone and travel over to live in America, subsequently thriving where many Irish athletes have struggled in the past.

“The US college system is cutthroat, and it has broken many athletes,” says O’Callaghan. “There are athletes on the Irish team now in Budapest, who went on a US scholarship in September and were home by Christmas. And they went down a different path.

“So she clearly has a lot of resilience within her makeup. And she clearly loves a challenge as well. And she performed really well at the European Championships last year, she’s a big-time competitor.”

For all the pressure and expectation surrounding her, Adeleke rarely seems fazed by anything, with her sunny disposition belying the steeliness that evidently lurks beneath the surface.

“She doesn’t take herself too seriously,” says O’Callaghan. “She comes from Tallaght and has clearly kept the humour and the wit of Dublin in her personality. I mean, her accent hasn’t changed [even though] she went to live in the south in Texas.

“She’s a laid-back character. And you’ll notice that most of the athletes who actually make it to the top are laid back and that disguises a fierce determination and resilience within her.”

Ireland’s Phil Healy, Sophie Becker, Sharlene Mawdsley and Rhasidat Adeleke after the 4x400m Relay Final at last year's European Championships. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO

And despite having spent much of the last three years in the US, Adeleke has not disregarded where she hails from.

“When she came back from the U20 European Championships, she had two medals,” recalls Fox. “She came back to my house and put one medal on my niece’s neck and one medal on my neck. And we got photos taken. So she never forgot her roots.

“I get the odd phone call. [Most] people forget about contacting their old coach back home.

“Even her mum will tell you, with her exams and everything going on in college and training, she would hardly get time to bless herself, let alone anything else.

“But she does — she’s in contact. She was down just before the senior championships about a fortnight ago. And she was here for two and a half hours with my wife and myself and her mam. 

“They’re a really lovely family and she only lived around the corner from me here. And she would be coming up and down to the club with her brother for training and then be dropped back home in the evening time. And that was going on from the time she was 13 to the [age of] 17.

“We have a lot of talent down in the club and we have young people that would look up to her now, all these kids winning All-Ireland titles.

“I’m not saying they’re all going to be Rhasidats, but they all have aspirations and that’s what it’s all about. And to have somebody that they can look up to is so important.”

But for all her success and popularity within the world of athletics, there is a sense that the general Irish public have yet to fully appreciate the scope of Adeleke’s talent. However, O’Callaghan believes that could be about to change.

“She’s been in the States. So we’re hearing about stuff [at a remove]. She runs on a Friday night, obviously, it’s in the middle of the night in Ireland and social media will cover it.

“So certainly people have been following it but I think the fact that Irish television are covering the first World Championship this century, I think now is the time and the fact that it’s the 400m, and the fact that she’s so highly ranked, I think she’ll really become a proper household name over the next 10 days.”

A 15-year-old Rhasidat Adeleke with her gold medal and teammates following the European Athletics U18 Championships in 2018. Sasa Pahic Szabo / INPHO Sasa Pahic Szabo / INPHO / INPHO

Such recognition would of course be amplified if Adeleke were to succeed in becoming Ireland’s first track medallist at the World Championships since Sonia O’Sullivan 28 years ago.

“If she got a medal, it would change everything,” explains O’Callaghan. “It would send her into an Olympic year, and open up a whole new world of commercial opportunities in Ireland.

“She’d be the face of the Olympics in Paris, which is our nearest EU neighbour capital. And in Budapest, for example, 116 countries have bought tickets, and Ireland are the fifth largest purchaser of tickets for the championships.

“So there’s a huge Irish brigade coming over, it’s probably about 2000-3000 throughout the week. There are probably about 500 coming from Galway alone where I’m from. There’s a load from the club and the county. The last World Championships in athletics in Europe was in 2017. So six years, with Covid, and with Tokyo [in 2025] or with Oregon last year.

“They’re all coming because they sense there’s a possibility of a medal here and it’s in Europe, etc.”

He continues: “People, rightly or not, are obsessed with medals. And we’re always saying: ‘Oh no, we could get a few athletes who might make a final or semi-final or whatever.’ But the general public wants to see if we can win medals. 

“I remember so well when Sonia was running in the early and mid-’90s. It literally stopped the nation back then. And Rhasidat has the possibility to do that as well.
And the fact that it’s on Virgin over the next week as well, and it’s in Europe, it’s the same time zone. She has the ability to really impact the nation’s psyche. And of course, the benefits will be lots of young boys and girls in Ireland will want to take up athletics.”

In addition, provided she can avoid serious injury, at only 20, Adeleke’s best days are surely ahead of her.

“She’s still, I would say, a relative novice, over 400m because she initially won the European U20 at 200m. There’s a big difference between 200 and 400. It might not seem like it to the general public, but there’s a huge difference in the type of race that it is.

“So she has the raw speed. And she has now built up the strength to be able to do 400m fast and obviously to survive going through the qualification rounds as well.

“So that’s where she’s going to improve over the long term and the experience as well. I mean, she’s coming into this championship now with quite a bit of expectation on her. She’s just signed a big contract with Nike. She is highly sought after, Nike will only sign contracts with athletes who they see as dominating on a global level. And she is on the verge of becoming a global star.”

Fox agrees that there is plenty more to come from his fellow Tallaght native, who is joining the likes of Robbie Keane, Richard Dunne, Jack Woolley, Katie McCabe and Stephen Kenny among the most high-profile sports personalities from the area to make a name for themselves on the world stage.

“For international athletics, you’re talking 23 to 27 [when athletes peak] and after that, you move up your distance and you have the strength and you just carry on. And you hope for the best.

“Up to the time you’re 22 or 23, I don’t care what anyone says, your body is still developing.

“You might have big shoulders and big backsides and big legs, but your internal organs, they have to develop as well. And I think they’re the last things to develop. That’s why it’s only the very odd one who, at 18 years of age, will beat the 23-24-year-old. They have to be exceptional and that’s my way of saying she’s exceptional.

“In the athletics field and in the sport as I regard it, she’s only a child.”

You can watch the World Championships live on Virgin Media with Rhasidat Adeleke due to compete in the 400m Heats on Sunday Morning at approximately 8.35am Irish time.