The young Irish athlete takes the 200m title at the European U18 Championships as Sophie O’Sullivan bags 800m silver.

It was a night to remember for Irish athletics as Rhasidat Adeleke stormed to gold in the girls 200m final and Sophie O’Sullivan sped to silver over 800m at the European U18 Championships in Gyor, Hungary (July 7).

Tallaght athlete Adeleke blitzed the bend and gave her rivals a clean pair of heels as she won the gold in 23.52 – a new personal best that sparked a tearful and jubilant celebration.

“I’m lost for words, I really wasn’t expecting that,” said Adeleke afterwards. “You work all year, there will be doubts and things that will bring you down but coming out with the gold is crazy.”

If that wasn’t enough for one night, O’Sullivan, the daughter of Irish legend Sonia, was dancing on the line before the start of the 800m final and then pursued to battle for a brilliant silver medal in a new personal best of 2:06.05.

Photo: European Athletics via Getty Images

Ireland has now won three medals at the European U18 Championships with Sarah Healy having already won gold in the 3000m on Friday night. Healy will step onto the track again on Sunday aiming to win another gold in the 1500m. The Blackrock youngster is the strong favourite with her personal best this year (4:09.25), 10 seconds quicker than her rivals.

Meanwhile, earlier on Saturday evening Miriam Daly finished sixth in her 400m hurdles semi-final in 61.35, a personal best, and finished 10th overall.

Louis O’Loughlin finished sixth in his semi-final of the 800m in 1:55.22.

Brian Lynch finished 24th at the halfway stage in the boys’ decathlon with a total of 3,338 points. His leading marks were: 100m 11.61, long jump 6.74m, shot put 12.84m, high jump 1.76m and 400m 53.12.

The closing day of action from Gyor can be watched live on Eurosport 2 and on the European Athletics website. The timetable for each day can be found here and results here.