Rhasidat Adeleke produces strong performance to finish second in China
Adeleke's Irish record is the 22.34 she ran in Florida back in April 2023, when she was still in the NCAA system, but she and her coach have taken a very different approach to the summer build-up now as a professional, bypassing the indoor season to work on building a large foundation ahead of the World Championships in Tokyo this September.
'It's really different and I'm trying to remember that because sometimes I compare myself to where I was last year or in college,' said Adeleke. 'But I'm in a whole different training cycle, a whole different race cycle so I need to trust the plan and keep my eyes on the World Championships.'
On the runner-up finish, she said: 'It was okay. We're at that part of the season where we're in a heavy load, I'm just trying to get the legs running again, into a sprint. I'm in a heavy block but I'm really happy with where I am now. Second in that race, it was a good field, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.'
Adeleke admitted it was hard to perform at her top level over 200m while in her current training phase, though the work continued immediately after the race, with Adeleke going to the warm-up track to complete a session of 12x100m.
'I used to be amazing out of the blocks, probably first off the bend, but I'm in that transition period, working on what's really going to help my 400m,' she said. 'I really came through at the end there which is the opposite of how I used to run, so what we're working on is coming to fruition. I'm excited for the rest of the year.'
In the men's 5000m, Irish record holder Brian Fay clocked the second quickest time of his career, 13:12.10, to finish 10th in a race won by Ethiopia's Berihu Aregawi, the Olympic silver medallist over 10,000m, in 12:50.45.
'It's been a hard start to the season, I got injured earlier in the year but I got back and managed to get myself going,' said Fay. ' I was aggressive and tried to stay aggressive with five laps to run. I did a good job and I'm getting there, slowly but surely. I said last year I want to f**king make something happen in Tokyo and I'm not there yet, but I'm going to get there. I'm getting better and better each race.'
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