Sydney McLaughlin Levrone broke the 400-meter hurdles world record set in her name on her way to qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics, during the selection trials for the American team for the 33rd edition of the Summer Games on Sunday in Eugene.
The 24-year-old clocked 50.65 seconds, breaking the record she set at the same track, Hayward Field, of 50.68 seconds during the 2022 World Cup, when she won the world title, which she added to her gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2021.
This is the fifth time that McLaughlin-Levron has broken the world record, after the beginning of 2021 in Eugene during the selection of the American team for the Tokyo Olympics (51.90 seconds), before improving the number in the Japanese capital two months later (51.46 seconds), and then in June 2022 in Eugene in particular (51.41s) and July of that year on the same track when she won the world title (50.68s).
McLavin-Levrone quickly pulled away from her rivals on her way to winning the final and breaking the world record, ahead of Anna Cockerill (52.64 seconds) and Jazmine Jones (52.77 seconds).
The winner of the 400-meter relay gold medal four times at the 2019 World Cup, Eugene 2022, and the Tokyo Olympics 2020, also admitted, “I did not expect that. But he (God) can accomplish anything. I am astonished, confused, and shocked.”
McLaughlin-Levrone will be competing in her third Olympics after also competing at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and she is again the favourite to win gold at Paris 2024.
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