When Sydney McLaughlin gets into the starting blocks for a women’s 400m hurdles race, the same question is on everyone’s mind.
How much will she break the world record by? Not if, but by how much.
McLaughlin delivered the first world-record performance of the World Athletics Championships22 on Friday when she ran 50.68 seconds for her first gold-medal win at a World Athletics Championships.
Since Hayward Field at the University of Oregon was reimagined and hosted competitions for the first time in 2021, there have been four world records set there. McLaughlin has set the last three of them. This record broke McLaughlin’s world record of 51.41 seconds set on June 25 at the U.S. Outdoor Championships.
“I think I’ve always had a really awesome relationship with Hayward Field,” McLaughlin said. “Every time I come here, I just feel like I run really great races. Being able to have World Championships here on U.S. soil was really special already.
“Just knowing that I’m in the same time zone I train in, and all of the advantages of having it on home soil, I think it really played to our advantage. I couldn’t be happier with how things turned out.”