Rhasidat Adeleke has said she wasn't even sure she'd be competing at this year's European Athletics Championships.
The Irish sprinter came fifth in the 400m final on Wednesday in Munich.
This sets a new national record of 50.53s.
💥💥IT'S 5TH IN EUROPE FOR RHASIDAT ADELEKE IN A NEW NATIONAL RECORD💥💥
An astonishing performance from lane 1 in her FIRST senior final!!!🇮🇪
⏱️50.53NR
What a 24 hours for the Irish team in Munich🤯🙌
ℹ️Full result: https://t.co/o3BmG2BLN7#Munich2022 @sportireland pic.twitter.com/GpAl51FAJN— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) August 17, 2022
She told Pat Kenny she's quite new to the 400m race.
"It's not even just physically tough, it's very mentally tough. Training for it, racing it is just very very hard.
"I actually only started doing it this year - so that was my sixth race ever, the final.
"I just kind of got thrown into it and just kind of went with it [having] not really trained for it.
"But I just wanted to see what I can do, and I just got this far and I'm just happy that I could do that".
'I had unfinished business'
Rhasidat said she felt she was nearly going too fast.
"Your coach usually gives you a race plan before you go in. My race plan was to go out hard and stay in contention.
"I was in lane one, so I would have had to try extra hard to make sure I don't get left behind.
"It's hard to really judge how fast I'm going, what pace I need to go.
"So I kind of went off a little too fast yesterday, and I kind of paid for it at the end of the race.
"But it's all a learning curve - I'm new to it, and hopefully next year that can be some experience for me going forward".
Ireland's Rhasidat Adeleke on her way to finishing fifth in the women's 400m final during day seven of the 2022 European Championships in Munich, Germany. Picture by: Ben McShane/SportsfileAnd she said she wasn't even sure she'd be there.
"I was on the 10th day of my break and I was like 'Do you know what, I think I might go to Munich'.
"I felt like I had unfinished business, I felt like I was in better shape than what I showed at World [Athletics Championships] - and I was like 'Let me see what I can do at Munich'.
"I just started training again and I decided to go".
This is the second national record from Team Ireland in the last 24 hours in Munich.
Israel Olatunde broke the 15-year record held by Paul Hession with a time of 10.17 seconds.
