I've only just seen this. Simply astonishing. It took 33 years to lower the 400m hurdles record by .78 seconds, from 52.94 to 52.16. Sydney McLaughlin has lowered it by 1.48 seconds in 13 months Look at this picture of the runner in second place when Sydney crosses the line that's Femke Bol. She ran a 52.27... which would've been good enough to set the world record until 2019! It's one of the fastest runs ever! And she's barely in the picture!
Bit of an indictment on society but there you go. When I watched it, very first instinct was ‘doping’. Still think Bolt and Farah were probably both into it too. Same with the woman that just broke the WR on the hurdles. It's not just the times, it's the gap. At that level, differences are so marginal. So when someone comes along and smokes everyone by yards, it just looks off.
wasnt it it deemed too windy for WR?. Agree though shes come from no where and hammered everyone. in all her interviews she just kept saying its technique
I highly highly doubt she’s doping, but I wouldn’t put my hand in the fire for any athlete in any sport. The difference in times is largely down to the improvements in shoe technology, led by Nike. Running times have dropped dramatically on the roads since they introduced the Vaporfly and now we’re seeing the same thing on the track with the Dragonfly. It is (or was - it’s not so new now) a controversial subject in athletics but there’s no doubting that they work. It’s not just good marketing. All the other brands have caught up now so it’s a relatively level playing field again too. Shouldn’t take anything away from Sydney though. Incredible athlete and proper role model for young girls.
That's some gap that for just 400m. Did all the other runners hit every hurdle during the race? Muhammad held the world record after breaking it twice in 2019 - on the second occasion, running 52.16 to beat McLaughlin to gold at the last world championships in Doha. But McLaughlin has improved that mark four times in the past 13 months, and has now run five of the six fastest times in history. Her winning time was faster than the seventh and eighth-placed times in the women's flat 400m final, raced half an hour earlier on the same track.
I genuinely don't think it is drug related. In technical events you do get someone come along who just nails it, is light years ahead of the opposition, and whose record stands for years after. They just have amazing technique. See Bob Beamon in the long jump, Jonathon Edwards in the triple jump, Sergey Bubka & Yelena Isinbayeva in the pole vault, jackie joyner-kersee in the Heptathlon, Jan Zelezny in the Javelin, Javier Sotomayor in the high jump, etc I was fortunate enough to see a lot of those live. Jan Zelezny wasn't all that muscular, which you would associate with drugs, but his technique was just amazing. Jonathon Edwards, whose world record still stands over 25 years later, was a slip of a man, but he could fly. It actually looked like he was flying. Sydney McLaughlin's technique is astonishing. She never breaks stride, never stutters, she's incredible and no amount of drugs can give you that.
Why do you doubt it so much? She's taken 3% off the world record in a sport of fine margins. It's the simplest and most likely explanation. I guess her being clean is more credible than Usain Bolt given that there's a higher technical element to hurdles, but if I had to bet whether she had doped or not I'd definitely stick my cash on doping.
The so-called super shoes. They really are making that much of a difference. Add to them lightning quick new tracks like the one at the new Hayward Field and the insane talent and technical ability of someone like Sydney. People will have their own opinions and, like I said, I wouldn’t put my hand in the fire for any athlete but as somebody who follows the sport closely it’s credible to me.
When a record is held for that long you’ve got to look at the original record holder and wonder why it’s taken so long for anyone to get near it. So someone on that list is probably dirty. I think with hurdling though because it’s so technical there is scope for larger improvements then the simple sprint disciplines, so maybe I’ll try not to be too synical.
Flo Jo's was a wind assisted time. The wind gauges failed just before the gun and didn't kick in until the race finished. The wind had been strong throughout the meeting.
