Another disappointing performance by Rhasidat Adeleke has again left her short of the qualifying time for next month’s European Championships, her fourth-place finish in the 200m in Lucerne a considerable way off her best.Adeleke clocked 23.07 seconds, outside the 22.85 standard to qualify for the European Championships in Birmingham, and well off her national 200m record of 22.34, set back in 2023.Starting in lane eight, Adeleke had already lost ground coming into the homestretch. Victory went to Fabienne Hoenke of Switzerland in 22.78 seconds.With the qualification window for Birmingham closing on Sunday week, Adeleke still has hope of qualifying for her specialist event, the 400m, and is due to line up in that distance at the KBC Night of Athletics in Heusden-Zolder in Belgium on Saturday.Lucerne is known as a good track for sprinting, the hope being it might represent a turning point for Adeleke after she withdrew from the 400m at the Monaco Diamond League last Friday. The 23-year-old is set to compete at the National Track and Field Championships at Morton Stadiumnext week, which coincides with the final dates for European Championship qualification.By her own admission, Adeleke found her comeback 400m race at the Eugene Diamond on July 4th “beyond rough”, the Dubliner finishing a distant last in 52.26, more than three seconds outside her Irish record of 49.07 from 2024. The 400m standard for Birmingham is 51.20, which Adeleke previously would have easily met. However, it’s clearly no easy task now, as Adeleke turns her attention to this Saturday’s race.Meanwhile, in the men’s 100m, Benji Richardson ran inside the Irish 100m record in finishing third in 10.06 seconds, eclipsing the 10.08 mark set by Israel Olatunde last August.Richardson’s change of allegiance from South Africa to Ireland was confirmed by World Athletics in November. For international competition, a three-year wait period from when an athlete last represented the country from which they have transferred is required, and Athletics Ireland are yet to decide whether Richardson’s times will count for the purpose of Irish records in the interim.