Sydney McLaughlin took first place in the women’s 400-meter hurdles at the Olympic Games.
Women 400M Hurdles Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
On Wednesday at the Tokyo Olympics, Sydney McLaughlin broke her own world mark in the women’s 400-meter hurdles to become the day’s biggest star.
Five years after competing for Team USA as a youngster in Rio, the 21-year-old American hurdler ran 51.46, beating 2016 Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad, to win gold.
Despite Muhammad’s early surge to the front and her continued lead through the penultimate obstacle, she ultimately came up short against McLaughlin’s finishing burst.
Muhammad broke the previous world record with his time of 51.58 and won the silver medal for the United States. Dutchwoman Femke Bol took bronze with a time of 52.03.
Ukranian athletes Anna Ryzhykova (53.48 seconds) and Viktoriya Tkachuk (53.79 seconds) joined Jamaica’s Janieve Russell (53.08 seconds) in breaking the 54-second mark.
World Athletics claims that the women’s 400-meter hurdles final in Tokyo will be the most competitive ever seen at a world championships.
The accomplishment came just 24 hours after Norway’s Karsten Warholm shattered the men’s 400-meter hurdles world record.
Muhammad had predicted that she would break the world record in the final, and she wasted no time in trying to do it.
Muhammad Remarked, “I was Thinking, take it out really, really fast.”
Sydney and Bol are able to get such impressive results by always taking the outside lane. That was perhaps one of my best cards to play. The velocity was always present in my mind. This begs the question:
why not? To get myself started and stay going, I experimented with a slightly different set pattern.
McLaughlin, who had raced Muhammad for years, was prepared for her American rival’s strategies since she knew what she was up against.
I know [Dalilah] is going out,” McLaughlin Stated often.
And I knew I had to be patient and have faith that I could finish strong enough to come off the bench at 10 and give it my all.
To a question about whether or not she would have raced as fast without Muhammad in the race, McLaughlin expressed gratitude for the rivalry that has helped both hurdlers improve.
As McLaughlin put it, “you need somebody who is going to push you to be your best;” that’s what “iron sharpening iron” is all about. To paraphrase, “And I think that’s what we do so well, every time we step on the track, it’s always something fast.”
McLaughlin, who qualified for the 2016 Olympic team at the age of 16, will be making her second Olympic appearance in Tokyo.
Just after She Turned 17, She made it to the Semifinals in Rio.
She thereby became the youngest American to compete in the Olympic track competition since 1972.
McLaughlin, originally from New Jersey but now residing in Los Angeles to work with legendary sprints coach Bobby Kersee, sparked a heated competition with Muhammad at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in June.
McLaughlin’s winning time of 51.90 seconds at the championship in Eugene, Oregon, surpassed Muhammad’s winning mark of 50.98 seconds at the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar, and set a new world record in the process.
For a while now, McLaughlin has been Steadily Rising in Popularity.
After just one year at the University of Kentucky, during which she set a new record in her specialty event, she made the jump to the professional circuit.
She competed in the 400-meter hurdles at the 2019 world championships, where she brought home silver. She also helped lead Team USA to victory in the 4×400-meter relay, where she won gold.
