Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won her second successive Olympic 400m hurdles title and smashed her own world record in the process, clocking 50.37, in Paris on Thursday night.
In one of the greatest track performances ever seen in athletics, the 25-year-old took down the mark of 50.65 she had set in Eugene earlier this year and was a class apart.
A battle royale with world champion Femke Bol had been anticipated, but it didn’t materialise and the European record-holder was beaten to silver by another American, Anna Cockrell, who produced the fourth-fastest time ever with her PB of 51.87. Bol cut a disappointed figure following the race, having run 52.15, and admitted she paid the price for a searing first 200m.
McLaughlin-Levrone and Bol had looked relatively well matched over the opening half of the race, but the defending champion established a gap on the final bend that only grew when she hit the finishing straight.
Bol remained her closest challenger but the European champion who had helped the Netherlands to Mixed 4x400m relay gold with an amazing anchor leg earlier in these Games began to toil and had no answer to Cockrell’s closing charge.
“All you want to do in an Olympic final is to put up your best race. I screwed it up,” said Bol. “I just got so much lactic acid with 300m to go. This is just a bad race. I’ll look at the positives, I’ll talk to my coach, I’ll try to enjoy the bronze.”
For McLaughlin-Levrone, her performance was the perfect belated birthday gift.
“I’m grateful to be celebrating my 25th birthday like this. It was yesterday. My whole family’s here. We’re going to celebrate, we’re going to enjoy this time and get ready for the [4x400m] relay too.
“It’s amazing to see our sport continue to grow, for people to want to watch the 400m hurdles, it’s amazing. Just a lot of hard work put in this year. I knew it was going to be a tough race. An amazing competition all the way round.”
Source: AW
