Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wins the 400 meters in near-record time at U.S. championships

Over and over Saturday evening, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone insisted she has yet to decide whether she will compete at August’s world track and field championships in the 400-meter hurdles, the event she has dominated, or the 400 meters, the event she has picked up this season.

“I have no idea,” she said.

Yet her race to a U.S. title in the open 400 on a warm evening inside Hayward Field revealed more than an idea as to what she could achieve should she run her new event in Hungary. McLaughlin-Levrone, 23, may be new to the event but already is producing familiar results — taking the race out to a blistering pace, claiming titles and cruising to times rarely seen.

In Saturday’s final McLaughlin-Levrone, who trains in Los Angeles under coach Bobby Kersee, won in 48.74 seconds to clock history’s 10th-fastest time — just behind Sanya Richards-Ross’ U.S. record of 48.70 set in 2006.

She finished more than a second ahead of the formidable Britton Wilson, who entered Saturday with six of the world’s 20 times under 50 seconds this season. Wilson finished in 49.79.

“I think I’m getting more used to it the more that I run it,” McLaughlin-Levrone said. “And really happy with that time.”

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McLaughlin-Levrone did not need to run the 400 hurdles in Eugene to make the U.S. team bound for the world championships because she owns a bye into August’s field as a reigning world champion. It was while winning that 2022 world championship that she lowered her own world record for the fourth time in less than two years until it was barely recognizable — her time of 50.68 making her the first woman under 51.

The security of her place in the world championships field in the hurdles is what led Kersee and his record-breaking athlete to consider dabbling in a second event. Her decision for what she will compete in at the world championships isn’t due for another month, as federations such as U.S. Track & Field have until Aug. 7 to submit their final entries for the event.

Running in Lane 4 on Saturday, just to the outside of Wilson of Arkansas, her chief challenger, McLaughlin-Levrone made up the stagger on the rest of the field before passing 200 meters in 23.24 seconds.

The start was reminiscent of her season-opening race in Paris in June, when she was instructed by Kersee to push the first half hard, and did — but paid for it in the final 100 meters, finishing second. Kersee was encouraged that the race had shown her the difference between the choreographed stride cadence required to run the hurdles and the all-out open 400. Two weeks later in New York, in her final tune-up before the U.S. championships, McLaughlin-Levrone set another personal best in 49.51, off her stated goal of breaking 49. On her YouTube channel, she said the result left her content but also still searching for how to put “the pieces” of the race together.

“Since the beginning of the year I feel like this year has not come easy to me, which is a good thing,” she said on YouTube. “Which is the Lord’s plan to challenge me. … I think I’m just learning to be patient.”

They came together this weekend in Eugene. Even better for her was that her brother, Taylor, qualified for Sunday’s final in the 400-meter hurdles.

“Obviously I want to get better, PR, put the race together properly and like I said, once I get the front half [of the race] and the back half together, that’s when that happens,” she said, “and I think today was good showing that.”

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is congratulated by third-place finisher Talitha Diggs after winning the women’s 400 meters.

(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

She was not the only member of Formula Kersee, the coach’s Los Angeles-based training group, who demonstrated her enormous potential in a new event Saturday. Athing Mu, the reigning Olympic and world champion in the 800 meters, finished second in the 1,500-meter final in 4 minutes 3.44 seconds, behind champion Nikki Hiltz.

Mu entered the meet with a personal best of 4:16 but met the standard required to compete at the world meet. She too said she is undecided what she will run in August, because of her bye into the 800 field.

But she was not surprised by McLaughlin-Levrone’s familiar dominance in a new event.

“Absolutely not,” Mu said. “The training that we do in Formula Kersee is absolutely insane. It’s insane. And just watching her and how strong she is and I don’t know, just seeing her every day it’s like, there’s no reason why she shouldn’t be able to do that.”