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For the 22-year-old Dubliner, it’s a chance to finish a breakthrough year with a flourish and make a statement against the world’s best before the focus turns to 2025. It’s Adeleke’s first appearance at the Diamond League final, where athletes compete for a $30,000 (€27,000) first prize, and she will race the 400m at 7.04pm Irish time.
Given the cool weather, this won’t be an evening for fast times, the focus on head-to-head competition.
Adeleke is drawn in lane four, with Paulino in five and Naser in six. The race is missing Olympic bronze medallist Natalia Kaczmarek, who ended her season after a race in Poland in late August where she finished third behind Paulino and Naser in 49.95, Adeleke was fourth there in 50.00.
In that race Adeleke adopted a very different strategy to the Olympic final, utilising her vast speed to lead the field through the opening 100m in 11.80 seconds. She hit 200m in second but just didn’t have the strength to go with Paulino and Naser down the home straight.
“The goal was to do well and perform my best under the circumstances,” she said. “Coming towards the end of the season, I just want to give that extra bit.”
She then returned to Texas to complete her final preparations for Brussels, where she said her goal is to “make the progress I need to make”.
Adeleke was 1.1 seconds behind Paulino in the Olympic final and 1.3 seconds behind her in Poland, and while her focus tonight will be on running her own race, she’ll be keen to close that gap in the most important race of the season outside of major championships.
It’s been another breakthrough year, Adeleke smashing Irish records over 60m, 200m and 300m indoors and over 100m and 400m outdoors.
She won silver in the European 400m final in Rome but was just 0.3 away from a medal at the Olympics, her frustration only heightened following another fourth-place finish in the women’s 4x400m, where Ireland were just 0.28 outside the medals.
“It just wasn’t meant to be today,” she said after the 400m final. “But I still have so much more to give.” She’ll be keen to show that tonight.
Diamond League final,
Live, VM 2/BBC 2, 7.0pm
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