Matching character's rotation to the rotation of a animation - How?

I'm currently scripting the player controls for my character, using rigid body + capsule collider. The movement needs some refining, but my main issue right now is matching my characters movement to the animations.

I've had no problems with the simple locomotion (forward/back+left/right) but i can't manage to make the character make a smooth 180 degree turn.

What i'm trying to achieve: Example One

How it's looking right now: Example Two

Currently i'm handling character rotation by rotating the character art towards the velocity of the rigidbody. This has worked fine with the other animations, but when it comes to a 180 degree turn, it makes it look very unrealistic.

Should i simply script it so that the rotation is slower while doing the 180 degree turn (will probably need lots of tweaking) or is there an easier way? Feels that i'm missing out on something.

I've looked into root motion, but have not manage to understand it entirely yet. Is there possibly a way to use root motion to temporarily set the rotation of the character art to the rotation of the 180 degree animation?

Any help is appreciated!