Rashidat Adeleke will be in action at the EBS Herculis Diamond League meeting on Wednesday in Monaco, France, nearly one year after she made her debut in athletics’ premier one day meeting series interestingly at the same event.
The 21 year old Irish-Nigerian will be competing in the 400m, an event she has only ran twice this year-both at the European Championships in Italy.
She ran a 49.07 lifetime best to place second in the final at the final of the Championships and will hope to run inside 49 seconds as she begins her final preparations for her first Olympics.
Adeleke placed fourth in her Diamond League debut in Monaco last year July and will seek to do better this year to be in a good psychological frame for the Olympics where Dominican Republic’s Paulino .. stands as the favourite to turn her silver of three years ago to gold this time around.
Last year, Adeleke placed fourth in the final of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, an improvement on her semifinal finish a year earlier in Eugene, Oregon, USA.
The Irish record holder will be looking to go a step further by making the podium this time at the Olympics.
In the women’s 100m, African record holder, Marie-Jose Ta Lou-Smith will return to action after her dramatic withdrawal from the semifinal of the 100 event at the 23rd African Athletics Championships in Douala, Cameroon.
The Ivorian, the only African in the race, will face familiar foes in Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred as well as the American trio of Tamara Clark, Tamari Davis and Aleia Hobbs.
Ta Lou-Smith is seeking a place at the 100m and 200m podium at the Olympics early next month after two fourth place finishes inn then 100m and a fourth and fifth place finish in then 200m.