First Diamond League Victory for Adeleke

by Perri Williams

At the Herculis Diamond League meeting tonight in Monaco, Rhasidat Adeleke powered down the home straight to take her first ever Diamond League victory. Clocking 49.17 the Tallaght AC athlete, finished half a second clear of the inform Leike Klaver (Netherlands). Kendall Ellis (USA was third in 50.39.

For most of the race it was Adeleke and Klaver who were neck and neck. Just as she had done at the European Championships in Rome, Adeleke found another gear over the final 100m and pulled away from the Dutch woman. Her winning time of 49.17 is just one tenth of a second behind the national record she set last month in Rome and the second fastest time of her career. Adeleke will compete in just one more race before the Paris Olympics – the Diamond League in London next weekend.

In the ladies 2000m Australia Jessica Hull tore the field apart as she set a new world record of 5.19:70. Ireland’s Ciara Mageean followed the blistering pace set by Hull for the first two laps before dropping off the pace. The City of Lisburn AC athlete finished 10^th in 5:43.06 moving to number two on the Irish All-time list.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen demonstrated a good final turn of speed as he increased his lead and set a new world lead and broke his own European record clocking 3:26:73. This sends a huge message to his competitors about his 1500m form ahead of the Olympics in Paris next month.

Earlier in the programme a battle ensued between USA’s Rai Benjamin, the reigning Olympic Champion Karlsten Warholm of Norway and the 2022 World Champion Dos Santos (Brazil). Benjamin edged past Warholm to clock 46.67 to take the 400m Hurdles victory. Dos Santos had to settle for third. The Olympic 400m hurdles has just got more interesting. Algerian Djamel Sedjati ran another sizzling 800m to finish in 1:41.46 ahead of Spaniard Mohammad Attaoui.

The next Diamond League meeting takes place next weekend in London.