In a thrilling precursor to the Paris Olympics, the London Diamond League unfolded, and sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke marked her strong intent by clocking the second fastest 200 metres of her career. Ahead of her pursuit of the 400m title in Paris, Adeleke competed against the world’s top 200m female athletes at London Stadium on a Saturday afternoon. Starting from lane eight, she secured a fifth-place finish with a 22.35 second sprint, just a fraction shy of her Irish record of 22.34 seconds set in Florida the previous summer.
Despite a minor headwind, the runner from Dublin held her own till the end, with Gabby Thomas of the United States – the previous year’s World Championships’ silver-medallist – ultimately clinching victory from lane six, setting a meet record with a 21.82 second sprint. Adeleke’s practice companions, Julien Alfred from St Lucia and Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, a 2019 World Champion, finished second and third respectively with times of 21.86 seconds and 22.07 seconds.
About a week earlier, Adeleke had triumphed in the 400m at the Monaco Diamond League with a 49.17-second sprint – her second fastest in her career. She managed to beat her 200m season-best record of 22.45 seconds in London, with her form clearly hitting the peak just in time for Paris.
Similar determination was shown by other leading Paris Olympics contenders, who also put on strong performances at London Stadium, the 2012 Olympics venue. Irish athletes Andrew Coscoran and Brian Fay concluded their preparations for Paris with memorable performances, with Coscoran recording the quickest mile run by an Irish athlete in 24 years by improving his best to 3:50.49, after a previous indoor run of 3:53.64.
Olli Hoare, an Australian athlete, secured the triumph in London with a time of 3:49.03. Coscoran, from Ireland, closely trailed to secure the eighth position, recording a new personal best time of 3:50.49, which now ranks third on the all-time Irish list, only second to Ray Flynn and Eamonn Coghlan’s respective records set in 1982 and 1983.
In an earlier race, Fay demonstrated remarkable speed in the last 200m of the 3,000m race, clinching seventh place with an improved time of 7:34.48, nearly two seconds faster than his previous best set a couple of years back.
In a close follow-up, was Nick Griggs, who stood tenth, knocking off over five seconds from his previous record, recording 7:36.59. The performance, achieved at the Cork City Sports earlier this month, also enhanced the Irish Under-23 record for Griggs, a 19-year-old from Tyrone, and elevated his rank from tenth to fourth in the all-time Irish list, tailing right behind Fay.
The race was won by Swiss athlete Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu, originally hailing from Sudan and a prior member of the Athlete Refugee Team, achieving both a national and meeting record of 7:27.68.
Adeleke experienced first-hand the high-quality competition she’d be up against in Paris when Jamaican runner Nickisha Pryce set the world’s fastest 400m record this year, improving her best to 48.57 seconds. Pryce had won the US NCAA title the previous month with a time of 48.89. This feat surpassed the 48.75 world lead for 2024 set by Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone from the US in New York earlier in May.
Pryce, aged 23, has shown immense growth this season, having been the runner-up to Adeleke at the 2023 US NCAA Championships. With a previous best time of 50.21 last year, Pryce clinched the NCAA title this June with an improved time of 48.89.
Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek set a new national record, finishing second in 48.90 seconds, a slight improvement from her previous record of 48.98 seconds which won her a gold medal at the European Championships held in Rome. Adeleke missed out on the first position, but Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands bettered her best completing in 49.58 seconds, up from 49.64, achieving third place.
In the women’s 800m, there was remarkable performance with Keely Hodgkinson setting a new British record with 1:54.61. Mathew Hudson-Smith followed suit, breaking the Britain’s 400m record by completing the race in an impressive 43.74 seconds, hinting at his strong determination for the Paris opening ceremony set for the following week, with the athletics events starting seven days afterwards.
Noah Lyles of the US emerged victorious in the men’s 100m, outperforming his previous best to finish in 9.81 seconds. A standout performance came from Dutch participant Femke Bol in the women’s 400m hurdles, where she set a new meeting record with a strong completion time of 51.30 seconds.