Rhasidat Adeleke fell short in her first attempt to qualify in the 200 metres for next month’s European Championships despite comfortably winning her heat on day one of the National Championships in Santry on Saturday.The 23-year-old was looking to hit the A-standard of 22.85 seconds, but the strong headwind certainly didn’t help matters and she clocked 23.32, although she will get her second and last chance in the final at 3.30pm.After weeks of calm weather, a strong wind whipped up earlier in the day, and although it was a little calmer by the 1pm race start, Adeleke was still running into a stiff -0.9m/s headwind. The Tallaght AC sprinter was racing at home for the first time in two years when she won the 100m title in 2024.Lauren Roy won the first of the four heats in 23.89, her race run into a headwind of -2.2m/s. Roy has a best of 22.83 this season, inside the European Championship standard.Then Sharlene Mawdsley won the third heat in 23.50 seconds, moving down from the 400, the wind reading in that race dropping to -0.6m/s.Adeleke was already short of the 200m qualifying time in Lucerne last week, running 23.07 seconds in fourth on that occasion, and well off her national 200m record of 22.34, set back in 2023.The qualification deadline for the European Championships is midnight on Sunday, before the event begins two weeks later in Birmingham. Adeleke has given up the chase to qualify in the 400m, the event in which she won silver in Rome two years ago, although she could still feature as part of the women’s 4x400m relay.Benji Richardson was a class apart when winning the first of the men’s 200m heats, clocking 21.24 seconds. It was his first race in Ireland, the country of his birth, since completing his transfer from South Africa earlier this year. However Richardson won’t have it all his way in the final, with recent Irish record holder Seán Aigboboh winning the second heat in 20.97 seconds.Both days of the championships are being streamed live via Athletics Ireland YouTube