RHASIDAT Adeleke showed she is rounding nicely into top form in advance of the Olympic Games in Paris with a smooth victory in the 400m at the Monaco Diamond League on Friday night.
The Tallaght athlete easily saw off the challenge of a strong international field to come home in 49.17 seconds, the second fastest time of her career.
After a long hold on their marks, Adeleke was quickly out of the blocks and led as she entered the backstraight.
Behind her, Lieke Klaver from the Netherlands ran well over the next 200 metres to enter the final straight just a metre behind the tall Irish woman.
It looked to be nip and tuck for a few strides but the smooth-running Adeleke was able to move comfortably away from Klaver, who visibly started to flounder under pressure, and break the tape well clear. Klaver held on for second in 49.64, with American Kendall Ellis third in 50.39 seconds.
It was a not-so-encouraging performance, though, from Ciara Mageean in the rarely run 2000m race. It was thought the extra distance would suit Mageean but that was not the case as she faded the more the race went on.
In the end, the Portaferry woman crossed the finish line in 10th with a 5:43.06 timing, well outside Sonia O’Sullivan’s national and former world record of 5:25.36.
Jessica Hull, emboldened by an Australian record over 1500m a few days earlier, stuck to a schedule of 64 seconds per lap to come home in a new world record of 5:19.70. Britain’s Melissa Courtney-Bryant was runner-up in 5:26.08 with Kenya’s Edinah Jebitok in 5:26.09.
As is his wont, Jakob Ingebrigtsen turned in the performance of the meeting, winning the 1500m in a personal best, Norwegian national and European record of 3:26.73. It was also the fourth fastest time ever run for the metric mile and came with another demonstration of his global domination of the distance.
After following his pacemakers for 1100m, Ingebrigtsen simply ran away from the field, as Diamond League specialist Timothy Cheruiyot from Kenya took second in 3:28.71, ahead of compatriot Brian Komen who was third in 3:28.80.
All the leading contenders for the gold medal at the Olympics were in the men’s 400m hurdles and it was American Rai Benjamin (46.67) who grabbed the psychological advantage going into Paris with a victory over defending champion Sweden’s Karsten Warholm (46.73) and reigning world champion Alison dos Santos (47.18) of Brazil.
Few thought the men’s 800m could be as fast as that of the previous Sunday in Paris but Djamel Sedjati went even quicker with a 1:41.46 timing for another Moroccan record and world leading time.
Spain’s Mohamed Attaoui set a super Spanish record of 1:42.04 and France’s Gabriel Tual in third was just outside his five-day old French record with a 1:42.10 timing. World champion Marco Arop from Canada set a seasonal best of 1:42.93 despite finishing back in sixth.
American Quincy Hall also set a world-leading mark of 43.80 in the 400m, while his fellow countryman Grant Holloway continued his winning streak in 110m hurdles with a 13.07 clocking into a slight breeze.
Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo took the men’s 200m in 19.87 with America’s world champion Noah Lyles an absentee.
Julien Alfred from St Lucia, a training partner of Rhasidat Adeleke, took the women’s 100m in 10.85, beating Britain’s European champion Dina Asher (10.99) into third.
Kenya’s Margaret Akidor was the winner of a closely-fought, but disappointing, women’s 5000m in 14:39.49 after outsprinting half a dozen of the top Ethiopians.
In the field, Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi won the women’s javelin with a 65.21m throw and Nina Kennedy registered a second Australian win on the night with a clearance of 4.88m in the pole vault.
Cuba’s Leyanis Perez established herself as favourite for the gold medal in Paris, winning the women’s triple jump with a 14.95m best.
New Zealand’s world indoor champion Hamish Kerr continued a good night for antipodean athletes winning the high jump with a personal best 2.33m clearance.
