July 23, (THEWILL) – At the current World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA, Sydney McLaughlin broke the 400-metre hurdle women’s world record for the fourth time in 13 months by breasting the tape ahead of the field in Friday’s final.
She finished in 50.68 seconds, beating her previous record by 0.73 seconds, an absurd time for a race of this length that would have taken 33 years to cut in the pre-McLaughlin era.
Femke Bol of the Netherlands, who came in second, was outpaced by McLaughlin by as much as 1.59 seconds. Dalilah Muhammad, McLaughlin’s biggest rival, came in third in 53.13 seconds, a timing that would have easily won the world title seven years earlier.
Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, presented McLaughlin a $100,000 cheque as prize for breaking the world record after she had received her gold medal. She improved the world record for the fourth major race in a row.
By the 150-metre mark on a clear, ideal, 72°F night at Hayward Field, McLaughlin had passed Bol and Muhammad. By the time the American reached the last turn, it was obvious that this would only be a race against time and another world record of her own making.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
