Irish sprinting sensation Rhasidat Adeleke says it was "disappointing" not to be selected as part of Team Ireland for the 2020 Olympic Games, but that her European Championship success has eased the blow.
The 18-year-old Dubliner made history last weekend when she claimed the 100m and 200m sprint double at the European u-20 championships in Tallinn, capping off a sensational year, during which she raced for the University of Texas in Austin.
Adeleke joined Ger Gilroy on Friday's Off The Ball to discuss her double-gold success in Estonia, and also explained the technical reasons why she didn't meet the criteria for the 100m and 200m races in Tokyo.
"Individually I just missed the 200m standard. And I know they had the new ranking system which seems to really benefit European athletes more than athletes in the NCAA, because the rankings for competitions in the NCAA weren't worth nearly as much bonus points as the ones in Europe were.
"A regular meet in Ireland would be worth than one of the fastest meets in the US, so if I was in Europe I definitely would have qualified based on my times because I would have got much higher rankings than the competitions I was competing in over here.
"You could say it's a little bit unfair, but it is what is is," Rhasidat Adeleke.
However, it had been anticipated that Adeleke would be selected to represent Team Ireland in the 4x400m mixed relay, before she was surprisingly left out.
Adeleke says this afternoon's opening ceremony left her wondering what might have been, but said she will quickly recover from the disappointment once she looks back on her other recent successes.
"I thought I would have been nominated for the relay but I wasn't, to my surprise. I guess it is what it is. I can't really do anything about it now," she said.
"It definitely was disappointing, I'm still a little bit disappointed now because the Olympics have started now and I think 'that could have been me'.
"But at the same time I've achieved so much this year, I'm so young, I'm going to have hopefully a couple more Olympics to qualify for. I'm actually not too upset because after winning both of my events at the European under 20s, I really can't be upset at it. I'm still grateful to everything, grateful to my coaches, so onwards and upwards," she added.
