By: Efran Zhao

World Champion Sydney McLaughlin has just set yet another 400-meter hurdles world

record, beating her previous record of 51.41 by 0.73 seconds. She has already broken the world record four times over the past two years.

Towards the end of the race, she was far ahead of all the other competitors, leaving them in

the dust and beating the second-place winner, Femke Bol’s time by 1.59 seconds. Her main rival, Dalilah Muhammad, finished in third place.

“It was crazy,” Bol said. “She was so far in front at the end, I was almost doubting if I really

had a good race. Then, I saw the time and I thought, ‘Wow, that explains a lot.”

Despite this huge accomplishment, she believes that she can still do better. “I think we’re all

figuring out that, yes, there are 10 barriers, but we can run them a lot faster than people think,” she said. “I still think that wasn’t even a super clean race … my coach thinks there’s a lot more to be done.”

This sport of hurdling has experienced many major improvements over the years,

continuously having its time records broken one at a time. One reason is because of the new

improved track surfaces and better technology, while another is the skill and technique that the new racers implement.

“It’s just putting everything that you’ve done in practice into the race to the point where

you’re just letting your body do what it does,” McLaughlin says. With more improvement to be

done, she says “the sky’s the limit for sure.”

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