ATHLETICS – BAHRAIN’S Kemi Adekoya clocked her season’s best time last night in the women’s 400 metres hurdles at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial-Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix in Budapest, Hungary.
Adekoya powered to a solid fourth-place finish in the eight-runner race held as part of a high-quality meeting, which was a gold-level event part of this year’s World Athletics Continental Tour.
Adekoya had finished her run in a time of 54.63 seconds. Reigning 400m hurdles world champion Femke Bol of the Netherlands took the win. She triumphed with a clear lead at the finish in a time of 52.24s.
Naomi van den Broek of Belgium followed as runner-up in 54.50s, while just ahead of Adekoya in third was Jasmine Jones of the US in 54.61s.
Completing the race’s classification from fifth through eighth, respectively, were Amalie Iuel (54.66s) of Norway, Shiann Salmon (54.95s) of Jamaica, Sara Mato (55.53s) of Hungary, and Bianca Stubler (56.49s) of the US. Savannah Sutherland was also in the entry list but did not start yesterday.
Adekoya ran for the fourth time this season. She beat her previous season’s best of 55.32s, which she set in May in the 26th Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea.
The 32-year-old is inching closer to her personal best of 53.09s, which is presently an Asian and national record. She had set the mark in the previous edition of the World Athletics Championships, held in 2023, also in Budapest.
Adekoya is one of the kingdom’s top athletes. She is hoping to be a part of the Bahrain national team that will be going for gold medals at this year’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, scheduled for September 13 to 21.
Adekoya has won multiple titles over her career. She is a former world indoor champion, an Asian and Arab champion and a multi-time Asian Games gold-medallist, a Diamond League race winner, and a World Military Games gold-medallist.
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