'It's a difficult thing' - Sonia O'Sullivan on Rhasidat Adeleke race dilemma for Olympics (2024)

SONIA O’SULLIVAN SAYS the race plan for Rhasidat Adeleke at the Olympics will depend on balancing her medal prospects in the individual 400m event with the expectations of Ireland’s 400m relay teams.

Adeleke competed in all three disciplines at the European Athletics Championships where she helped the Ireland mixed 4x400m relay team to a gold medal while also contributing to a silver medal finish in the women’s relay event. She was a silver medal winner in the individual 400m final, falling just short of clinching first place with a blistering run of 49.07 to set a new Irish record.

O’Sullivan says Adeleke’s coachEdrick Floréal will have a plan for the Tallaght star that he is “probably keeping close to his chest” and expects that her next few races will dictate the shape of that approach. There are other factors to consider in Ireland’s quest for track medals in Paris.

“I think a lot of it will depend on what Sharlene Mawdsley decides to do,” she said referring to another member of the mixed relay and women’s relay teams. “She’s also an athlete we need on the mixed relay and she also has an individual race to focus on.

“So, I mean as a country, does the mixed relay become more important than the individual [event] for some people and less important for others? How do you balance that when you weigh up where the medals are going to come from? It’s a huge opportunity for an Olympic medal in that relay team but do you give that opportunity up in the hope that we get an individual medal?

“It’s a difficult thing because Athletics Ireland are not making that decision. It’s the individual athlete’s coaches who are the ones who make the decision.”

Sonia O'Sullivan. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

Phil Healy and Sophie Becker were the other members of the women’s relay team, with Healy producing a brilliant lap of 51.51 in the final after overcoming a significant health battle in recent years. Healy told RTÉ’s David Gillick after the race that she contemplated retirement after receiving a diagnosis for an autoimmune condition calledHashimoto’s disease in 2022. O’Sullivan says relay running should be Healy’s focus in the build-up to Paris.

“You can see how the relay team offers a new lease of life for athletes. It also offers opportunities for young athletes to qualify for Olympic Games. Even if they get on the squad, they get to be part of the team. That’s a huge motivation for athletes to really push and try to get into that top six Irish women 400m and be part of the team.

“Phil was one of our top athletes in the past few years and the sport has improved and moved on a lot. Phil was out of the sport for a while and for her to be able to come back in and be part of the relay team is huge. Her aspirations should be purely focused on doing the best for the relay team and I think she should only do her individual aspirations if it helps her in the relay team.”

Ciara Mageean was Ireland’s other gold medal winner at the European Championships in Rome, storming through a gap on between Great Britain’sJemma Reekie and Georgia Bell on the home straight to become the 1,500m champion. O’Sullivan anticipated a podium finish for Mageean at the Europeans but adds that the Olympics will present a different challenge for her.

“When you look back on it, she was obviously practicing running a tactical race rather than a fast-paced race.

“I knew Ciara was going to get a medal, I wasn’t sure which colour it was going to be. I also knew if she was going to turn up for the European championships in an Olympic year where she’s running at her best, she obviously believed that she had a good chance to win a medal and a gold medal was the ultimate goal. It wasn’t a difficult race for her in the end once she got out of the box.

“So it just shows that she’s been practicing specifically for that race. And now going to the Olympics, she’ll have to practice for a different type of race. When the rest of the world step in, the pace will be a lot greater and there’ll be other athletes who will have a more dominant influence on the outcome of the race.”

Sonia O’Sullivan was speaking at theAllianz launch of their new “Stop The Drop” research. The Stop The Drop campaign sheds critical light on the decline in sports participation among Irish children, particularly during the pivotal transition from primary to secondary school.

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