Rhasidat Adeleke Withdraws from Tonight's KBC Nacht 400m in Blow to Birmingham Hopes

Rhasidat Adeleke has withdrawn from tonight's KBC Night of Athletics meeting in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium, in another setback to her interrupted 2026 season.

Several media outlets had reported that Rhasidat Adeleke was due to contest tonight's women's 400 metres in what was expected to be one of her final opportunities to strengthen her bid for qualification for next month's European Athletics Championships in Birmingham.

Instead, Adeleke is now listed as 'cancelled' and has been removed from the official start list.

The news comes just two days after Adeleke returned to action in Europe at the Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern meeting in Switzerland, where she finished fourth in the 200 metres in 23.07, a slight improvement on her tough return at the Prefontaine Classic earlier this month.

It marks Adeleke's second withdrawal in as many weeks after she was also forced to pull out of last Friday week's Monaco Diamond League meeting.

The withdrawal leaves Adeleke with very few realistic opportunities to qualify for the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham over either 200 or 400 metres.

Although the Irish star has already achieved the B standard in the 200 metres this season, she currently does not have the world ranking required to convert that into qualification. Meanwhile, she has yet to achieve either the automatic qualifying standard or the B standard over 400 metres, leaving her without a qualification mark in her preferred event.

With the qualification window closing on July 26th, time is rapidly running out. There are very few suitable meetings remaining before the deadline, with many European countries staging their national championships next weekend, leaving the midweek calendar particularly sparse. While another race before the window closes is not entirely beyond the realms of possibility, tonight's withdrawal significantly reduces Adeleke's already limited opportunities to secure an individual place in Birmingham.