Adeleke: ‘Rankings don’t mean anything until you run the race’

Rashidat Adeleke came into the NCAA outdoor championships in Austin, Texas as the second best, by a mile, behind Britton Wilson but ended her incredible 2023
collegiate campaign not only with a record breaking performance but also the 400m title.

The Irish 200m and 400m record holder took a really giant step with that statement making performance to become Ireland’s first NCAA sprint champion.

The 20-year-old clocked an extraordinary time of 49.20s to take gold on her home track, the Mike Myers stadium in Austin, Texas.

Adeleke played second fiddle to Wilson all through the pre-championships season and lost in their only encounter this year. The Irish athlete ran 49.90 at
the Tom Jones Memmorial in Gainesville, Florida in April with Wilson the winner with her 49.51 perfromance.

Many saw an upset in the event but Adeleke disagrees.
“At the end of the day when there’s nine people in the final anything can happen.

“I don’t feel that anyone is supposed to go in as favourite. There’s rankings but they don’t mean anything until you run the race,’ she told FloTrack after
the race.

Adeleke has had an incredible outdoor and outdoor season and a Communication student at University of Texas.

Indoors she was the Big 12 Indoor 400 Champion with a then-collegiate record time of 50.33 seconds and won a silver medal at the 2023 NCAA Indoor
Championships (50.45).

Outdoors, Adeleke was part of three collegiate records at the Texas Relays, breaking the 4×100 record (42.00), the 4×200 record (1:28.05) and the sprint
medley relay record (3:36.10).