Irish running sensation Rhasidat Adeleke and her three teammates, Julien Alfred, Lanae-Tava Thomas and Dina Asher-Smith have smashed a long-standing world record time today with their performance at the Texas Relays.
Adeleke's team ran a time of 1.27.05 in today's 4 x 200m event, beating the current world record time by just 0.4 seconds.
The previous record time had been held by the US team when they recorded a time of 1.27.46 at an event in Penn State University in 2000.
Here’s the 4x200m WR race from Texas Relays. Dina Asher-Smith, Rhasidat Adeleke, Lanae-Tava Thomas & Julien Alfred clocked 1:27.05 to smash the previous WR of 1:27.46!!!
It’s not the best angle, but it’s the best footage there is at the moment.
🎥 Texas Track Dad Podcast (YT) pic.twitter.com/9jOtkip8Vz— Owen M (@_OwenM_) March 30, 2024
While that record was over two decades old, Adeleke and her team had come close to beating it last year when they set a time of 1.28.05 in Austin, placing them in second place in the overall standings. Three of today's four competed in that event last year with Dina Asher-Smith's replacement of Kevona Davis the only change.
23 August 2023; Rhasidat Adeleke of Ireland before competing in the women's 400m final during day five of the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
In fitting fashion Adeleke was competing in the Texas Relays at the Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin Texas at the University of Texas when she won. Adeleke had been on scholarship at the University since 2021 but forwent her final year there to turn professional. The Tallaght runner was awarded an invitational spot to compete today.
Unfortunately, obscure rules in the running world mean that today's world record beating time won't count as the official world record because all the competitors running were not from the same country. In order to qualify for the World Record every member of the team must be representing the same nationality.
Adeleke who started her running career in Tallaght Athletic Club has been going from strength to strength since she headed stateside three years ago. She currently holds the Irish national record in both the indoor and outdoor 200m and 400m races, but has perhaps seen some of her best running come in the relays where she's won NCAA championships with University of Texas in both 2022 and 2023.
If today's results are anything to go by, Ireland have an athletic superstar on their hands.
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