Rhasidat Adeleke’s chance of qualifying for next month’s European Championships in Birmingham appear slim after she withdrew from the 400m at the KBC Night of Athletics in Heusden-Zolder on Saturday. The deadline for qualification is Sunday week.Adeleke was short of the 200m qualifying time in Lucerne on Thursday night, her 23.07 seconds to finish fourth outside the 22.85 standard to qualify for Birmingham.Adeleke was originally due to race the 400m in Belgium on Saturday, ahead of the European Championships’ qualification deadline on Sunday week. Having withdrew from the 400m at the Monaco Diamond League last week, the hope was Heusden-Zolder could represent a turning point in her season. The 400m standard for Birmingham of 51.20 is a time Adeleke previously would have easily met.It’s now unclear if the 23-year-old will compete at the National Track and Field Championships at Morton Stadium next weekend, coinciding with the final date for European 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.Meanwhile at the London Diamond League, Mark English ran the fastest 800m of his life, the 33-year-old clocking 1:42.97 after another storming finish down the homestretch.Victory went to the USA’s Brandon Miller in 1:42.19. Cian McPhillips came through to finish seventh in 1:43.97, a season’s best for the Longford man.Sarah Healy ran a lifetime best of 8:25.63 in the 3,000m to finish third, Australia’s Jessica Hull winning in 8:24.69. And at the European Under-18 Championships in Italy, there were silver medals for Lucie Cawley and Emma Hickey. In the women’s 2,000m steeplechase, Sligo AC athlete Cawley smashed her national under-18 record to finish second in 6:36.22 before Hickey United Striders AC matched the result in the 1,500m.