McLaughlin-Levrone runs fastest women’s 400m in 40 years to claim world gold | World Athletics Championships

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran the fastest 400 female meters in 40 years to demand the gold of the world championship in 47.78 seconds on Thursday and finish its transition from obstacles to a touch in a categorical style. The American stormed Tokyo’s rain to add a world’s first gold in the 400m flat to the two Olympic titles and a world which she won over obstacles.

Not since the iron curtain threw a shadow on Europe, and sport was considered a war by other means through the eastern block, has a woman to run a 400m as fast as McLaughlin-Levrone on this damp and wild Tokyo night.

The wind was wink unevenly around the national stage. There were puddles on the track. And yet, the American looked almost serene as she floated on the track to take a superb gold medal from the world athletics championship in 47.78 seconds.

Then, when she briefly spoke to journalists, she invoked the power of prayer and the Lord. In terms of athletics, this performance was certainly as similar to God.

“I trusted my training,” she said. “I knew I had it in me to run so fast. It was just a matter of time. “

However, when McLaughlin-Levrone announced that she was going to the 400m of hedges, where she holds the world record and two Olympic and global titles, there were many skeptics. They will be silent now. “My trainer, Bobby Kersee, uses boxing terms all the time,” she said. “He said,” You have to go there and take the belt. It’s not yours, and you have to win it. “”

The time of McLaughlin-Levrone was so fast that it brought it to the second row on the list of all time, jumping on the Jarmila Kratochvilova Czech, which attributed its muscular physique to growth in a farm, a formation of rigorous weight and photos of vitamin B12, at the start of its 1980s.

Only Marita Koch’s world record of 47.60 seconds, established by Est-German in 1985 and questioned since despite the insistence of the athlete that she has done nothing wrong, is now located above the American athlete. But McLaughlin-Levrone knows that it is within its reach.

Admittedly, Salwa Eid Naser, who won bronze, thinks that it is possible after having the best opinion in the National Stadium of the American Performance. “I think that very soon, the 400m women’s world record will be broken,” she said. “I never thought about it before, but after the race tonight, I can see that it is at the corner of the street.”

However, incredibly, the result was still in doubt of the final turn. While McLaughlin-Levrone looked in front of track five, she could see the Olympic champion, Marileidy Paulino, next to her, in the external path.

Some would have panicked. But the shape of the American has not changed and its balance has not changed. Slowly, Paulino began to vacillate and settle for money in 47.98 seconds, the third best time in history, with Eid third in 48.19 seconds, the faster ninth of all time. Amber Anning in Great Britain led the best of the season of 49.36 seconds to finish a very credible fifth.

“I knew that the strength was there,” said McLaughlin-Levrone. “I just knew there was more in the tank. And I knew it was going to be a battle in full stretch. It was a lot of hard work, a lot of prayer, a lot of confidence in the process. ”

Elsewhere in the sixth night of action, Keshorn Walcott by Trinidad & Tobago won his second world title in male javelin, 13 years after his first at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Busang Collen Kebinatshipi, 21, announced on the world stage by winning the male title of the 400m in 43.53 seconds, with compatriot Bayapo Ndori taking bronze during a memorable evening for Botswana. Jereem Richards took the money.

There was also gold for Leyanis Pérez Hernández de Cuba in the triple female jump after a 14.94 m leap.

But that night was all about McLaughlin-Levrone. There may be even larger challenges and peaks, after suspending the prospect of making the two events at the Los Angeles Olympic Games afterwards.

“We will have to talk about the 2028 game calendar,” she said. “Maybe I could make the 400m and 400m obstacles. But I would need a few days of leave between these events and there is a difficult field in the two events.”

Asked her last verdict on that night, she smiles. “I think it shows that everything is really possible,” she said. “But I have no more words for you right now. I’m still trying to treat everything.” Who could blame him? Anyway, who needs words when you talk about the track?