Rhasidat Adeleke booked her place in the 400 meters final at the World championship with a solid second place.
Adeleke running out of lane five in the first of three semi-final’s clocked 49.87 seconds for second place. An automatic qualification for Wednesday’s final.
Marileidly Paulino of Dominic Republic won out with a fast start. Adeleke closed in before easing up to save energy for the final.
Paulino broke the tape in 49.54 seconds, Adeleke posting 49.87 seconds.
“I went out a bit slow and was a bit further back than I planned” explained Adeleke. “But I know what to change for the final and I’m excited for it”.
The top two in each of the three semi-finals all qualified automatically for the final. Whereas Cynthia Bolingo of Belgium and Jamaica’s Candice McLeod qualified for the final as fastest losers.
Bolingo and McLeod were third and fourth in Adeleke’s semi-final. Bolingo’s time was a new Belgian record.
Adeleke will return to the track for her first world senior final on Wednesday evening at 8.35pm Irish time.
Meanwhile, Sharlene Mawdsley bowed out of her individual 400m posting 51.78 second for sixth place in semi-final two.
Mawdsley had posted a new lifetime best of 51.17 seconds in Sunday’s heats. Mawdsley was also part of the Irish mixed 4x400m relay team which finished sixth in the World final. The Tipperary woman running four races in three days.
“It’s been an amazing week” declared Mawdsley. “I really can’t believe what I’ve produced". Mawdsley went on "I believed in myself this week and I’ve been rewarded with a personal best and an individual semi-final”.
“I trusted my training and that I could produce back-to-back performances so it’s given me great confidence that I can compete at this level consistently”.
