Rhasidat Adeleke will miss mixed relay race to focus on individual 400m podium glory

Rhasidat Adeleke will focus on the individual 400 metres at the Olympic track and field races and not compete in the 4x400m relay.

The heat draws for Friday’s athletics programme were announced on Wednesday evening, including the mixed 4x400m relay.

Set for 7.10pm Irish time August 2 and the final then set for the Saturday night August 3 8.55pm, the mixed relay heats won't give Adeleke the desired recovery time to compete in the individual's 400m race  on Monday August 5.

The mixed 4x400m relay team will be led by Chris O’Donnell, who will hand over to Sophie Becker, then Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley, who will finish off the race.

The news comes shortly after the athlete took part in Ireland's record breaking performance at the European Championships mixed relay in Rome this June where the team won gold and smashed the national record.

However, just two days later, Adeleke competed in the individual 400 metres race where she narrowly missed out on gold, which was won by Polish runner Natalia Kaczmarek, who didn’t line up for the mixed relay event.

The athlete revealed that her legs felt heavy as she partook in the individual race.

The Tallaght native has a reportedly strong chance of a medal as her Irish record of 49.07 seconds from Rome is the third fastest time in the world this year among the 400m entries.

That said, two other women competing have run significantly faster: the 2023 world champion Marileidy Paulino from the Dominican Republic has run 48.76, and the 2019 world champion Salwa Eid Naser from Bahrain has run 48.14.

Even if the team makes it to the final, Adeleke is still expected to withdraw from the event.

The star athlete's sole focus will be on the individual women’s 400m race. The heats for which kick off on Monday, August 5.