Rhasidat Adeleke comes second in her professional debut

Kenneth Fox

Rhasidat Adeleke was second behind the reigning world champion in her professional debut.

The Dubliner finished second behind Shericka Jackson in the 200-metres at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial in Hungary.

Adeleke ran a time of 22.36 seconds, just 2-hundredths of a second off her own national record.

As The Irish Times reports, Jackson won the World Championships title in Oregon last summer in 21.45 seconds and only the late Florence Griffith-Joyner has run faster, with her world record time of 21.34 from 1988.

After this, the latest stop on the Continental Gold Tour, Adeleke will now make her Diamond League debut in Monaco on Friday over her now chosen distance of 400m.

There she gets to test herself against the American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone for the first time. The world record holder in the 400m hurdles is running the flat event this year, and won the US Championships last weekend in a time of 48.71.

On Sunday evening, after much talk and anticipation, Adeleke confirmed she would forego her final year of eligibility at the University of Texas in Austin to take up a professional running contract.

Last month she improved her Irish record to 49.20 seconds when winning the NCAA title in Texas last month, already reaching the pinnacle of US collegiate athletics.