Rhasidat Adeleke named Athletics Ireland Athlete of the Year

Rhasidat Adeleke has been named Athletics Ireland’s Athlete of the Year at the National Athletics Awards held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry, a suburb on the northside of Dublin on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old won European Championships silver in the 400m event and helped her country win gold as part of the Irish 4×400 mixed relay team in Rome as well as silver in women’s 4×400 relay.

She was also a strong part of the Irish mixed 4x400m relay team that won a bronze medal at the World Relays in the Bahamas in May and was close to making history as the first Irish woman to win a 400m medal at the Olympics, finishing fourth in the individual 400m and the women’s 4x400m relay.

Adeleke also broke a number of Irish record in 2024.

She came close to becoming the first Irish woman to run a sub-49 seconds in the 400m after speeding to a 49.07 finish to win the European Championships silver in June. Her time was an improvement on the 49.20 she ran in 2023.

She also set new national records in the 400m indoors (50.33), 200m indoors (22.52), 200m outdoor (22.34), 300m indoors (36.42), 100m (11.13) and 60m indoors (7.17) in addition to inspiring the 4x400m mixed relay (3:09.92) and the women’s 4x400m relay (3:19.90) to new Irish records.

Adeleke, born to Nigerian parents, was also awarded the Sprint and Hurdles Athlete of Year.