Women’s hurdles a record-setter
DRAMATIC 400-METRE FINAL SETS FRESH WORLD, OLYMPIC AND EUROPEAN STANDARDS
The 400-metre hurdles takes so much from every athlete brave — or crazy — enough to run it. On occasion, the one-lap, 10-hurdle torture test gives it all back and more, and that’s exactly what has happened at the Tokyo Olympics.
The women’s final on Wednesday was positively soaked in athletics drama. Sydney Mclaughlin, a sparkling 21-year-old from the United States, won the gold medal in a world and Olympic record time of 51.46 seconds. She owned the previous world best of 51.90 seconds, set June 26. Dalilah Muhammad of the USA, 10 years her senior, took the silver in 51.58 seconds, a time that would have broken the previous world record. Another 21-year-old phenom, Femke Bol of the Netherlands, won the bronze medal in a European record time of 52.03 seconds.
If that mind-boggling statistical breakdown sounds eerily familiar, it’s because the men’s 400-metre hurdles final delivered the exact same series of fortunate events just one day earlier on National Stadium’s lightning fast track.
The world and Olympic record time of 45.94 seconds brought gold and glory for Karsten Warholm of Norway, who held the previous world mark of 46.70 seconds, set July 1. The silver medal went to American Rai Benjamin in 46.17 seconds, a time that would have broken Warholm’s previous world best. And the bronze medal was won by Brazilian Alison dos Santos in a South American record time of 46.72 seconds.
History-making on repeat? In the same discipline? That’s just not normal.
“This means that this year we have fantastic results in the 400-metre hurdles, for women as well as men. I don’t understand how this is all happening, honestly,” said Ukrainian hurdler Viktoriya Tkachuk, who finished sixth.
The track has played a part, to be sure.
“It is a really fast track and it boils down to that,” said Muhammad. “You can kind of tell how fast the track is by how easily you are making your steps between the hurdles. It was spot on, at every hurdle. I was able to do a 14-step pattern today.”
But if it was all about the brand new Mondotrack WS surface, there would have been world records in every race. That’s not the case. There have been plenty of national and area records set, and the Olympic mark has tumbled a few times as well. But so far the only other athletics world record to fall came in women’s triple jump, where Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas turned the trick.
So that has to mean it’s mostly about the athletes in the 400-metre hurdles.
“Just like the men’s race, all three of our times would have won any Olympics, any other year,” Muhammad said of the podium finishers.
It’s true. With his time of 46.72 seconds, Dos Santos would have been wearing gold at any other Olympics; same with Bol at 52.03 seconds. That’s astonishing.
In the days leading up to the final, Mclaughlin did her best to avoid the world record hype. She stayed off social media, kept a low profile. She learned a painful lesson at Rio 2016, where she failed to make the final, and wasn’t about to repeat it.
“I made the mistake in 2016 of letting the atmosphere get to me. But this time I stayed in my bubble and did the same things I had been doing before.”
She ran her race out of lane four, looking calm down the stretch. Muhammad was out in lane seven and the two Americans who know each other so well, pushed and pulled one another into the history books.