Adeleke makes 400m semi-final, Mawdsley and Becker into repechage

Rhasidat Adeleke has qualified for the semi-final of the women's 400m at the Olympic Games in Paris.

The Dubliner was fastest in heat 6, clocking 50.09.

It was an utterly dominant run from the 21-year-old, who put up enough of a lead on the rest of the field to allow her to ease up significantly coming to the line.

It was Adeleke's first outing of the Games, with her opening performance sending her to the semi-finals as the seventh-fastest qualifier.

In heat 1, Sophie Becker was outside the qualification, crossing the line in sixth in a time of 51.84, while Sharlene Mawdsley posted a personal best (50.71) in heat 5 to take fourth having been pipped at the finish by Austria's Susanne Gogl-Walli.

Both Becker and Mawdsley will get another chance to qualify for Wednesday's semi-finals through the repechage round which will be run on Tuesday.

Speaking to RTÉ after the heats, Adeleke said the run "felt so good".

On her race strategy, she said: "My coaches said run the first 200 and just make sure you're in contention the whole time, and as soon as you can bring back the pace."

Adeleke added that she was excited to finally get her Olympic campaign under way: "I've been here for a week now and I've been itching to go the last few days, but it's been so fun, I've seen all my teammates compete and they've been doing phenomenally."

Marileidy Paulino from the Dominican Republic was the fastest qualifier overall, with a time of 49.42, followed by Team GB's Amber Anning (49.68) and Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser (49.91).