Rhasidat Adeleke took another giant leap forward in her young career overnight becoming Ireland's first NCAA sprint champion.
The 20-year-old clocked an extraordinary time of 49.20s to take 400m gold on her home track in Austin, Texas.
It knocks another three tenths of a second off her national record for the event which she has now broken for the third time this outdoor season.
And here it is🔥🔥🔥 @rhasidatadeleke ⏱49:20 🤯 pic.twitter.com/aSkxBSUkse
— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) June 11, 2023
RHASIDAT ADELEKE!!!!
49.20!!🔥🤘 pic.twitter.com/txRd5GToVJ— Texas T&F/XC (@TexasTFXC) June 11, 2023
Rhasidat Adeleke becomes the first Irish sprinter to win an NCAA title as she clocks a national and meet 400m record of 49.20 to beat favourite Britton Wilson. pic.twitter.com/iuhA1FI0MH
— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) June 11, 2023
The University of Texas student caused a bit of an upset when taking from victory from collegiate record holder Britton Wilson. Despite getting the better of Adeleke on multiple occassions so far this year, it was the American athlete who this time had to settle for silver.
Adeleke's time was also only 0.07s off Wilson's collegiate record.
Wilson finished in a time of 49.64s, while her team-mate, Nickisha Pryce ran 50.23s for third.
Speaking afterwards an elated Adeleke was asked whether or not she felt that she had caused an upset.
"At the end of the day when there's nine people in the final anything can happen," she told FloTrack.
"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."
Earlier in the programme, Adeleke had helped her Texas team to 4x100m glory, running the third leg in what was a comfortable win for the Longhorns.
Texas also took the overall women's team title for the fifth time in their history.
Just how good is Rhasidat Adeleke?
It is incredibly hard to sum up what Adeleke has achieved but it's worth attempting to put it into some sort of context.
The Tallaght woman's latest record-breaking time would have been good enough to take gold in the 400m at the European Championships in Munich last summer, silver at the last World Championships and a podium place at every single Olympic Games this century.
Adeleke's time is third fastest in the world this year and the 20th fastest of all-time by an athlete in the event.
While her collegiate season may now have come to a close she still has the World Athletics Championships in Budapest to come in August, where she will be hoping to contend for a medal.
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