Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone cemented her status as one of the greats of athletics in the 400 m hurdles. After pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, she sets the second world record in Paris.
09.08.2024, 10:28
09.08.2024, 11:21
SDA
One day after her 25th birthday, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone gave herself a present. Word Athletics will pay her 50,000 dollars for the world record - and thanks to contracts with sponsors, there will be plenty more dollars to come from other sources.
The American from the state of New Jersey collects the record bonuses just as frequently as her compatriot, who competes for Sweden, although she cannot apply salami tactics as precisely as the pole artist. Duplantis has improved from 6.17 m to 6.25 m in four-and-a-half years and has topped up her account a total of nine times. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has already broken the world record six times in the past three years.
At the 2021 US Trials in Eugene, she ran under 52 seconds (51.90) for the first time, and now the 50-second mark is already shaky. The American was in a league of her own on Thursday evening with 50.37. Her compatriot Anna Cockrell (51.87) had no chance, nor did Dutch world champion Femke Bol, who had been announced as a rival but had to settle for bronze (52.15), just like in Tokyo 2021.
Femke Bol risked too much
Femke Bol kept up the pace in the first 200 m, where you want to be as energy-efficient as possible. At the fifth hurdle, the two were separated by just 0.14 seconds. But trying to keep up with the American that evening was like trying to overtake a TGV train on French soil. The athlete of Swiss coach Laurent Meuwly paid for this effort and still managed to take bronze.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone runs the 400 m with ten hurdles faster than very few other women over 400 m flat. A time of 50.17 seconds was required to reach the Olympic 400 m final; the hurdler missed this mark by just two tenths of a second.
"We are gradually moving towards 49 seconds. I have the feeling it's getting closer," said the American after her world record run. "I'm getting more and more familiar with this discipline, there are so many ways to run the 400m hurdles and improve. Be it the running pattern, the support times (duration of contact between the ground and foot), the pure speed."
The hurdles are the enemy
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone did not see the final as a duel against Femke Bol. "Every race is about you against ten hurdles," she emphasized. "Of course there are people next to you who push you. But that doesn't matter. You have to concentrate on the hurdles to cross them as efficiently as possible every time."
Things might be different at the weekend. Then the two women could run against each other in the 4x400 m relay without having to concentrate on the hurdles, if the course of the race and the schedule allow it.
