All athletes will tell you that winning a national title is always such a great honour, but sometimes there are bigger things at stake. Starting with Rhasidat Adeleke it was all about turning her season around, before Sophie O’Sullivan and Cian McPhillips wrapped up the National Track and Field Championships in Santry on Sunday evening with a bonus prize of their own.With her impressive runaway victory over 1,500 metres, O’Sullivan collected her second national title in 4:05.62 – hitting the front with around 650m to go, and with that finally taking down the championship record 4:07.09 which had belonged to her mother Sonia since 1995. That’s now two successive championship record holders for Ballymore Cobh AC.Laura Nicholson of Bandon AC did chase hard to win silver in 4:08.27, but with that fell short one second short of the B-standard for next month’s European Championships in Birmingham. O’Sullivan has already qualified, along with Sarah Healy, who missed the championships this weekend with a minor injury.“I’ll get back to a bit of training for the next two weeks and hopefully do something good,” said O’Sullivan, who has bounced back to her best in recent weeks having won this event at the Morton Games last month.In winning his first national outdoor 800 metres title, McPhillips also gave himself the bonus of a confidence boast ahead of Birmingham, where events begin on Monday week. The UCD AC athlete cruised to win in 1:47.76, breezing past early leader Cillian Kirwan from Raheny, who won silver in 1:49.39. Although five-time European medal winner, Mark English, was absent with an Achilles tendon strain, Irish medal hopes for this event for Birmingham are strong.“It was a very frustrating start to the year, but I’m getting there, it was a good run,” said McPhillips, “and hopefully this trajectory can continue.”Adeleke had already set Morton Stadium alight in the 200m on Saturday afternoon, even if in the split second it took her to cross the line and then catch a glimpse of the clock, it felt like her entire season was hanging in the balance.Rhasidat Adeleke celebrates after winning the women's 200m final on Saturday. Photograph: Mark Kavanagh/Sportsfile When her time of 22.80 seconds flashed up on the clock – inside the required 22.85 to book her ticket to Birmingham – Adeleke promptly raised her arms in delight, then slowed up with a smile across her face that hadn’t been seen in quite a while.Better still, Adeleke ran into a stiff -1.1m/s headwind, suggesting there are faster times to come after – by her own admission – weeks of adversity and increasing pressure, which at times became all-consuming. Only this time Adeleke let all that pressure go, reminding herself of why, and for who, she first started running for back in her earliest days at Tallaght AC.“I’m just trying to work with the cards I’ve been dealt with this year,” she said. “It’s new for me, this type of adversity. I think throughout my career, I’ve been blessed to have a pretty seamless route to success.“Performances is the forefront, it’s always been my main priority. And as I improved and I became world-class, I think the pressure builds, not just for myself, but everybody else. “I almost let it consume me a little bit, and I think just having this difficulty and adversity has kind of brought me back to why I do it in the first place. Because you have to analyse everything, when things like that happen. And it just came back to figuring out who I am, why I do this, why I started it, and who I do it for.”She also detailed the nature of her setbacks in recent months, including two hamstring injuries which kept her out of training for four weeks at a time at her training base in Austin, Texas: “Now I’m just taking everything a day at a time, trying to relax and enjoy my experience. I want to put having fun at the forefront and pinnacle of why I do this.”There were utterly contrasting fortunes for Sharlene Mawdsley, who pulled up with what looked like a serious hamstring injury coming into the homestretch. Mawdsley was visibly upset when leaving the track, and will undergo a scan on Monday to assess the extent of her injury, an ill-timed blow having run four consecutive personal bests over the 400m this season, and still ranked fifth fastest in Europe.Benji Richardson on the way to winning the men's 100m to complete the sprint double. Photograph: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile Sunday evening also concluded with strong performance by Andrew Coscoran in the men’s 1,500m, the Star of the Sea AC runner denying Cathal Doyle a fifth successive title when boldly kicking for home around the final bend, winning in 3:44.07, to Doyle’s 3:44.70. Nick Griggs won bronze in 3:45.02.Coscoran is already qualified for Birmingham and is certainly rounding into form, as is Darragh McElhinney, who won the 5,000m in 13:31.71 after his bid for glory with two laps to run. Jack O’Leary was second in 13:35.54.Benji Richardson also completed a 100m/200m double in what were his first races in Ireland, the county of his birth, after completing his transfer from South Africa earlier this year. Although not eligible to represent Ireland until next year, Richardson’s 100m victory on Sunday also produced a championship record of 10.13 seconds, defending champion Bori Akinola second in 10.21, with Seán Aigboboh running a best of 10.26 to take bronze.In the field, there was a fifth national title for Nicola Tuthill in the hammer, the Bandon woman throwing a best of 70.16m, with Ruby Millet taking the women’s long jump title with a best of 6.47m, Elizabeth Ndudi settling for bronze with a best of 6.42mJack Raftery came through on the line to win his third successive men’s 400m, after Rachel McCann also ran down Sophie Becker in the race for the women’s title, winning in 52.93, with Becker clocking 53.23.US-based Madison Mooney also produced a late run to snatch the 800m title from Emma Moore, but there was no stopping Sarah Lavin’s quest to win her 11th title in the 100m hurdles, running a season best of 13.34.