Athletics World Championships | Sydney McLaughlin ran the 400m hurdles to a wild world record, broke the ghost mark of 51 seconds

Eugene, Oregon

Unbelievablebut true.

Sydney McLaughlin sat himself on the surface of the track at Hayward Field with a look of disbelief on his face.

The American ran the world record in the 400-meter hurdles for the fourth time in the World Athletics Championships early on Saturday. And in what way: he broke the ghost mark of 51 seconds with his time of 50.68.

McLaughlin was also the first to break 52 seconds. It happened at the 2020 U.S. Olympic qualifiers, when he ran a time of 51.90.

A year ago, he won Olympic gold in Tokyo with an ME time of 51.46. American Dalilah Muhammad in the same run, as the second woman, was under 52 seconds, 51.58.

Today in summer, the pace has only accelerated.

In Midsummer, he ran even faster at the American championships on the same Hayward Field World Cup track: 51.41. It was his third world record.

It was then said that it was only a matter of time because he was running under 51 seconds. In the World Championship arena, he then improved his ME time of less than a month by 73 hundredths of a second.

Could McLaughlin even run a fenced track lap under 50 seconds?

It is possible.

It sounds crazy, but it was underrated Karsten Warhol too The unbroken 46-second mark in the men’s 400m hurdles in Tokyo, 45.94.

Sydney McLaughlin was just 16 years old when she ran at the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016.

Six years later, at the age of 22, he is one of the best track and field athletes in the world. The same kind of superstar as a pole vaulter Armand Duplantis or triple jumper Yulimar Rojas.

Although McLaughlin has already won a lot, the world championship run early Saturday was his first, but hardly his last. Three years ago he won silver in Doha.

Since then, he has not lost a single race in the 400m hurdles.

Among Europeans, 52 seconds have made it to the Netherlands Femke Bol (52.08) with the same Swiss coach Laurent Meuwly as in the World Championships with Finland’s record run Delay in Lehikoinen.

At the World Championships, Bol won silver with a season’s best of 52.27. 2019 world champion Muhammad was third, 53.18.

In addition to the individual Olympic gold, world championship and World Cup silver, McLaughlin was involved in winning the Olympic gold in the 4 x 400 meter relay in Tokyo and the World Cup gold in Doha for the United States team.

It is possible that she will be seen on the track in Eugene in the final event of the World Championships in the women’s long relay.

McLaughlin is born to be an athlete. His father, Willie, ran in the semifinals in the 400 meters at the US Olympic qualifiers in 1984. His father’s record for the distance is 45.30. Markku Kukkoahon Finland’s record is 45.49.

Father Willie is said to have bribed his talented daughter into running.

“My father promised that if I ran, I would get a chocolate bar. I ran a hundred meters and really won. I think I was more excited about the chocolate than the win. I guess my father enticed me to do sports that way,” McLaughlin said at the World Championships.

“This in ME time is incredible.”

McLauglin’s mother has also run, and brother Taylor, who is two years older, won silver in the 2016 World Youth Championships in the 400m hurdles.

In 2015, Sydney McLaughlin won the junior world championship in Cali, Colombia (55.94) at the age of 15. He also has all the best times in the world in the 14-19-year-old 400-meter hurdles.

In her first adult honors at the Olympic Games in Rio, Sydney McLaughlin was the youngest U.S. Olympic athlete in track and field since Rhonda Bradywho ran the 100m hurdles in Montreal in 1976.

In Rio, McLaughlin was 17th, when Muhammad, ten years older than him, won the Olympic gold.

At high school age McLaughlin won almost every national competition he entered. He has been named the best collegiate athlete in the country.

During his career, he has had several coaches who have taken him from one level to another. Nowadays he is coached by a distinguished Bob Kersee.

Coach Wizard’s most famous athletes have been his wives Jackie Joyner-Kersee mixed Allyson Felixwhich McLaughlin has named as his role model.

Felix capped off his career at the World Championships in Eugene by winning his 19th career medal, a bronze, on the US 4x400m medley relay team.

Joyner-Kersee is a three-time Olympic champion and four-time world champion in long jump and heptathlon.

In May, McLaughlin married a former American football player Andre Levrone Jr with. McLaughlin is involved in charity work and does volunteer work for the Red Cross.

In Eugene, McLaughlin was asked where his limits might be? How fast can he still run?

“I’m still young, but I’ve learned a lot. There is no such thing as a perfect run. There is always room for improvement. I will do everything possible to be as successful as possible.”

The American media has already hinted that McLaughlin could next run a smooth 400 meters and aim for the East German Marita Koch’s world record 47.60. Koch ran it in Canberra, Australia on October 6, 1985.

Nothing is impossible. That’s what McLauglin showed with his Run.