World Athletics Championships 2022: Sydney McLaughlin breaks her own world record in 400M hurdles again

Bengaluru, Juy 23: America's Sydney McLaughlin broke 400M hurdles world record for the fourth time of her career, surpassing her own previous best of 51.41sec with a terrific 50.68 to win her first world title on Day 8 of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.

McLaughlin's incredible performance sliced more than half a second of her own world record set at the same venue during the US trials last month.

It is the third world record that the 22-year-old has set at the Hayward Field Track in Eugene.

Her first came at the 2021 US Olympic Trials, when she clocked 51.90 to improve on the 52.16 global mark that Dalilah Muhammad had set when winning the 2019 World Athletics Championships title in Doha ahead of her compatriot.

Just over a month later, McLaughlin ran 51.46 to win the Olympic title in Tokyo, and she broke the record for a third time at this year's US Championships in Eugene on 25 June, clocking 51.41.

On Friday (July 22) evening at Hayward Field Track, it was another epic race in front of a passionate home crowd.

McLaughlin holds the world 400M hurdles bests at every age -- from 14 to 19. The New Jersey native also holds the world Under-18 record at 54.18 and has registered the fastest-ever time by an U-20 athlete at 52.75

Identical podium

And at Oregon 2022, the champion nonpareil, raised the bar yet again. Behind her, Netherlands' Olympic bronze medallist Femke Bol clinched silver in 52.27, while USA's former world record-holder Dalilah clocked 53.13 for bronze.

It is a performance that will be looked at by all other 400M hurdlers, and indeed fans of the sport, as something out of this world and that is exactly what it is - to everyone but McLaughlin! Kudos champ!

Surging ahead

"Honestly I just wanted to go for it," McLaughlin said afterwards. "The last 100 really hurt, but I'm grateful to have this crowd. Go Team USA!"

Femke and Dalilah would have had realistic hopes of challenging McLaughlin for gold before the race. But McLaughlin was in a league of her own almost from the gun, surging clear of Dalilah with a blistering opening 200M and coming off the final bend several meters clear of her rivals.

Astonishing time

Any fears that McLaughlin had gone out too hard over the opening 300 was wiped out down the home stretch as she kicked for home with a vengeance, powering through the line to complete one of the greatest performances in track and field history.

Her astonishing winning time was faster than the seventh and eighth placed times in the women's flat 400M final raced earlier in the evening.

Final stretch

McLaughlin sat crouched on the track after her win, seemingly in disbelief at the scale of her own achievement. Let us just leave that time there, sitting on its own, because that is what it will now do on the all-time lists - by some distance the most spectacular performance to date at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.

After eight days of high-octane action, this is the first world record set at Eugene 2022, which concludes on July 24.