Sydney McLaughlin (© How Lao / WCH Oregon22)
When Sydney McLaughlin gets into the starting blocks for a women’s 400m hurdles race, the same question is on everyone’s mind.
How much will she break the world record by? Not if, but by how much.
McLaughlin delivered the first world-record performance of the World Athletics Championships22 on Friday when she ran 50.68 seconds for her first gold-medal win at a World Athletics Championships.
Since Hayward Field at the University of Oregon was reimagined and hosted competitions for the first time in 2021, there have been four world records set there. McLaughlin has set the last three of them. This record broke McLaughlin’s world record of 51.41 seconds set on June 25 at the U.S. Outdoor Championships.
“I think I’ve always had a really awesome relationship with Hayward Field,” McLaughlin said. “Every time I come here, I just feel like I run really great races. Being able to have World Championships here on U.S. soil was really special already.
“Just knowing that I’m in the same time zone I train in, and all of the advantages of having it on home soil, I think it really played to our advantage. I couldn’t be happier with how things turned out.”
McLaughlin’s margin of victory over the field and the time she shaved off her previous world record were hard to understand afterward.
“I definitely thought 50 was possible,” said former world record-holder Dalilah Muhammad, who was third in a season-best 53.13 seconds to win the bronze medal. “After that race, I think 49 is possible. For Sydney.”
The only thing McLaughlin’s performance can be compared to is what Karsten Warholm of Norway did last year when he won the men’s 400m hurdles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In that race, Warholm lowered his world record from 46.70 seconds to 45.94 seconds. Just like Warholm breaking 46 seconds, McLaughlin breaking 51 seconds is something most people thought impossible.
The difference is that Warholm had Rai Benjamin run 46.17 seconds and pushed him to that world record. McLaughlin did it by herself.
“I think we’re figuring out that yes, there’s 10 barriers, but we can run them a lot faster than people think,” McLaughlin said. “There’s no such thing as a perfect race, but I still don’t think that was a super clean race. So, I knew the time was possible. Numbers don’t lie, and (coach) Bobby (Kersee) is really good with numbers, so I just had to trust him and trust my training and go out there and execute the best race I could.”
McLaughlin was in the lead and in control from the start. At the halfway point, her lead over Femke Bol of the Netherlands was almost three-quarters of a second. She hit the homestretch more than a second ahead of Bol and almost 1.5 seconds of Muhammad.
McLaughlin hit the finish line, looked at the time on the reader board next to the track and then took a seat on the track, much like she did when she set the record in June. This time, however, she stayed much longer.
“I was just taking a moment to really enjoy what had just taken place,” McLaughlin said. “So many times, the race goes by, and you forget what happens. I really just wanted to sit there and sit there for a moment and soak it all in before getting into the craziness of what follows that.”
The craziness of what will follow will be plenty of discussion about how much faster McLaughlin can run, and whether she’ll be content continuing to run just the 400m hurdles or pick up another event.
The race featured the three-fastest performers in history and four of the five fastest. The all-out assault on the world record began on July 28, 2019, when Muhammad broke the world record for the first time when she ran 52.20 seconds at the U.S. Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Beginning with that race, McLaughlin and Muhammad have combined to break the world record six times in seven head-to-head races.
McLaughlin’s world record from June was the first time the world record had been broken since 2019 without McLaughlin going against Muhammad.
“It’s just amazing to run 50,” said Bol, who finished second in 52.27 seconds to equal her season best. “One year ago, 51 was run for the first time. It’s great to see this event going so fast.”
After Muhammad set her first world record, she did it again at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, where she won in 52.16 seconds with McLaughlin second in 52.23.
That remained the world record until McLaughlin ran 51.90 seconds to win the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, McLaughlin won the gold medal with a world record of 51.46 seconds with Muhammad getting the silver medal in 51.58, and Bol becoming the No. 3 performer in history at 52.03 seconds.
“We definitely have more eyes on us this year than ever on our event,” McLaughlin said, “but I think that’s what makes it so amazing, that we took an event that wasn’t super popular, and we’ve made it a key event in the sport. Yes, there’s a lot more eyes, but I think that’s what our sport needs in order to keep growing is events that are really competitive and to be a part of that, that’s really special.”
McLaughlin hinted that a big world-record time was possible when she coasted through her Wednesday semifinal heat in 52.17 seconds. Bol, who had run 52.27 seconds and 52.61 seconds two weeks apart last month in June, won her semifinal heat in 52.84 seconds, and Muhammad won her semifinal in 53.28 seconds.
“She just pushes me to also run faster and try harder and I think it’s amazing to run in the race like today,” Bol said. “I just love competing against the best and that’s what I got to do today.”
Muhammad, who had a bye into the WCH Oregon22 as the defending champion, didn’t run at the U.S. Outdoor Championships because of an injury. She went almost two months between races, having last run at a Diamond League meet in Birmingham, England, on May 21 before her first-round heat on Tuesday.
“I’m just excited to come home with a medal, especially on home soil,” Muhammad said. “I was kind of nervous going into this meet, just not knowing where my fitness level would be so to get a medal just feels like icing on the cake and just kind of shows that my resilience as an athlete.”
Muhammad made history of her own Friday, becoming the first woman to win four World Athletics Championships medals in the event. She won silver in 2013 in Moscow in her first World Athletics Championships, took another silver in London in 2017 and the gold in Doha.
“I think the 400 hurdles have so much more to give,” Muhammad said, “and we’re finally kind of cutting into what the women in the 400 hurdles can do in general, and just me wanting to be a part of that knowing that there’s more to give.”
Shamier Little of the U.S., who is the fifth-fastest performer in history, was fourth Friday in 53.76 seconds. Britton Wilson of the U.S. who won the NCAA title for Arkansas in 53.03 seconds, was fifth in 54.02 seconds.
By Ashley Conklin
