Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won the women’s 400m gold at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. But saying just that would not be doing justice to the incredible feat that McLaughlin-Levrone achieved on Thursday.
It was not too long back when the 26-year-old American, originally a 400m
hurdler, decided to run 400m flat at the Championships. And what a transition it has been for her!
McLaughlin-Levrone ran the fastest women’s 400 metres in 40 years to claim the world title in 47.78 seconds on Thursday. Not just that, she shattered a 42-year-old Championship record in the process. It was also a new American record. She is now the first athlete ever to win world titles in both 400m and 400m hurdles. And all that in her first complete season as a 400m runner.
She stormed through the Tokyo rain and held off Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino in a sprint to the line to add a first global gold in the flat 400m to the two Olympic and one world titles she won over the hurdles.
Only Marita Koch has run faster in the event, the East German setting the world record time of 47.60s in 1985 under the shadow of the Cold War nation’s systematic doping programme.
Paulino, who was defending the title she won two years ago, took the silver medal back to the Dominican Republic after finishing second in 47.98s and becoming the third fastest woman of all time.
The American got away well and appeared to be clear of the field coming around the final bend, but Paulino, running in the outside lane, looked like she might catch the leader as they raced towards the line. But McLaughlin-Levrone just had enough gas to cross the line first.
Bahrain’s Nigerian-born former world champion Salwa Eid Naser, who served a two-year ban for a doping infraction from 2021-23, took bronze in 48.19s.
In the lead-up to the Championships, McLaughlin-Levrone insisted that women needed to think about breaking the 48-seconds barrier before they go after what was once thought to be an unapproachable world record.
Now, that record is on shaky footing. For the record, McLaughlin-Levrone has broken the 400m hurdles world record six times, most recently at last year’s Olympics, where she lowered it to 50.37 seconds.
It was McLaughlin-Levrone’s 19th straight victory in a one-lap race — hurdles and flat — dating to June 2023.
With inputs from AP