Rhasidat Adeleke finishes fourth in 400m Olympics final

Tallaght native Adeleke finished just one spot off a medal in the 400m Olympic final.

By: irishmirror.ie

Aug 09 2024
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Rhasidat Adeleke finishes four

Rhasidat Adeleke narrowly missed out on an Olympic medal as she finished fourth in her 400m final on Friday evening in Paris.

The 21-year-old made history in becoming the first Irish female sprinter to reach and Olympic final and was agonisingly close to a medal at the first time of asking.

Running out of Lane Four, Adeleke came into the final stretch in third place but was chased down by European Champion Natalia Kaczmarek, who denied Adeleke a bronze medal.

Hot favourite Marileidy Paulino stormed to gold in an Olympic record 48.17 seconds with Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain taking silver.

A dejected Adeleke told RTE's David Gillick after the race: "Honestly, I'm happy to be healthy and living well after. Today wasn't meant to be but I just hope there's much more to come," after clocking a time of 49.28.

"I was just trying to stay in contention. I wasn't trying to be phased too much on where I was in the race and just make sure that I executed my own race and not trying to follow anyone else. It is what it is, I just have to move forward with it and build on this for the next one.

"I don't think it was anything beyond what I could do. I just feel like it just wasn't meant to be today and that's okay. I'll move on. I'm so grateful for everyone supporting me."

It was another close call for the Dubliner, who finished fourth in last year's World Championships but she will have another chance at an Olympic medal tomorrow evening when she races in the 4x400 Women's relay final.

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