U.S. Trials: McLaughlin-Levrone breaks world record, qualifies to defend Olympic title

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone lowered her world record once again, running the 400-meter hurdles in 50.65 seconds on Sunday to win the U.S. Olympic trials.

In only her fourth long hurdles race of the season, the 24-year-old defending Olympic champion cleared all 10 barriers with ease, then went on a dead sprint to the line to break the record for the fifth time.

Four of those marks have now come on track at University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.

She held her hand over her mouth and stared in amazement when she saw the time come up. The mark was .03 seconds better than her run at Hayward in the 2022 world championships.

In an event that used to be decided by steps or slivers, McLaughlin-Levrone’s victory was by 1.99 seconds over Anna Cockrell and 2.12 over Jasmine Jones.

It doesn’t so much reset the storyline for the Olympics — McLaughlin-Levrone would’ve been the big-time favourite either way — as much as makes track rethink what’s possible.

From 2003-19, the world record in this event stayed stuck at 52.34. American Dalilah Muhammad broke it twice in 2019 — the second time at the world championships in a race that demoralised McLaughlin-Levrone and sparked a move over to coach Bobby Kersee.

Now, instead of a much-anticipated showdown with Femke Bol of the Netherlands, the conversation might turn to when the 50-second mark might come tumbling down in this race.