In a Hayward Field stadium where she excelled, the queen of the 400-meter hurdles, Sydney McLaughlin-Levroneput an end to the US Olympic trials on Sunday with a new world record for 50 seconds and 65 seconds in Eugene, Oregon.
The final test of the program after ten days of competition, the women’s 400 meters hurdles featured a demonstration by McLaughlin-Levrone, who reaffirmed after a difficult year in 2023 that she will be the favorite to succeed her at the Paris Olympic Games in a month (from July 26 to August 11).
“I knew I could run under 51 seconds, but I was surprised by the time because my intervals (between hurdles) weren’t as good as I expected. But I’m very happy to know that my form is good and I can still work at some point,” he declared.
McLaughlin-Levrone, who practices in Los Angeles in historical Bob Kerseealready participated in the Rio Games at the age of 17, before bringing home two gold medals from Tokyo 2021 (400 hurdles and 4×400 meters).
Absent from last year’s World Championships in Budapest due to injury, McLaughlin-Levrone did not run a single 400 hurdles event in 2023, despite some convincing 400m performances at the meetings.
This year, after a break-in race in late May and then a heat and a half that didn’t struggle this week, the 24-year-old American gave it his all in the final for his fifth world record in three years, the his fourth on the Hayward course.
He broke the record for the first time in June 2021 in Eugene, on the occasion of the Olympic trials, with 51.90, before improving his mark in Tokyo two months later (51.46), and again in June 2022 in Eugene (51.41 and in finally in July 2022, always in Oregon, to become world champion (50.68).
At 24 years old, his margin in the competition seems enormous, even the Dutch world champion Femke Bol He came close last year (51.45), and promises to offer him a tough rivalry in Paris.
“I want to run under 50 seconds a day, but I don’t know if it’s possible this year,” he declared.
McLaughlin-Levrone’s time of 50.65 would have placed her sixth in the 400m “dash” final at the US trials last week.
His breakthrough performance almost eclipsed his counterpart’s massive time Ray Benjaminwon the men’s final in 46.46, the best world record of the season and the fifth fastest time in history.
Source: La Verdad
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