Sonia O'Sullivan believes that Rhasidat Adeleke will learn some invaluable lessons from her silver medal run in the final of the 400m at the European Championships.
Adeleke finished second behind Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek in Rome, with the two battling it out down the home straight for gold.
After a sedate first half to the race, Kaczmarek led the charge home as Adeleke kept the pace before overtaking the Polish runner coming off the bend.
However, the more experienced Kaczmarek fought back and found and extra final burst to record a winning time of 48.98 seconds - the quickest 400m in the world this year.
Adeleke set a new Irish record of 49.07 on her way to silver and while O’Sullivan believes that the Dubliner will be disappointed to finish second, she also feels the 21-year-old will be a better runner for that experience.
"You learn from every race you run," O’Sullivan said. "You learn more from the races that you lose than the races that you win.
"For Rhasidat, it would have been fantastic if we were jumping around and celebrating a third gold medal. But I think going forward a silver medal is, in some ways, more important because it means that you have more work to do and the time to do it.
"She’s going to go back now and knuckle down and be focused on at least beating Kaczmarek the next time out.
"She got close this time. Kaczmarek was silver medallist in the World Championships last year and I don't thinkKaczmarek will beat Rhasidat at the Olympics."
Still only 21 years old, Adeleke had already secured a gold medal at these championships as part of the mixed 4x400m relay team and with the Olympics just around the corner, O’Sullivan expects her to get the better of her Polish rival next time they meet.
Read more on rte.ie
rte.ie
