(Sports news) The 400 metres hurdles this year was one of the most record breaking events. In the women’s 400 metre hurdles, the two year old record was broken four times this year by three athletes. Sydney McLaughlin was the first one to break it and went on to do it again as Dalilah Muhammad also broke it once alongside Femke Bol.
The women’s 400 metre hurdles record was previously held by Dalilah Muhammad who broke a 16 year old record by Yuliya Pechonkina, in the same year McLaughlin came close to Dalilah who then went on to further reduce her timing once again. Sydney and Dalilah are the only women to run the event in under 52 seconds as Sydney is the only one to do it twice. Pechonkina set the record of 52.34 in 2003 and it has been surpassed seven times as of now with Sydney and Dalilah doing it thrice each and Femke doing it once.
Sydney set the tune this year by running 51.90 secs in June at Eugene as she became the first woman to run the event under 52 seconds. She broke the record of Dalilah who ran 52.16 in 2019 as the two athletes were having a go at each other this year. At the Tokyo Olympics, Sydney again proved to be unstoppable as she broke the world record by running a 51.46 as she edged Dalilah who was timed at 51.58 and bronze medallist Femke had a timing of 52.03 to complete the fastest race of all time. The three medalists produced the top three fastest timings in the history of the event.
Dalilah is the oldest of the three as she is 31 years old and has been competing for the past 8 years. One of the best runners the event has ever produced, Dalilah was too quick against her younger competitors as Sydney is 22 and Femke is 21. It will be a tough competition especially with Sydney and Femke as they are almost of the same age.
In the men’s 400 metre hurdles this year, three athletes broke a 29 year record as Karsten Warholm did it twice within two months. Kevin Young’s world record had been standing since 1992 as he was the first one to run the event under 47 seconds; he had run in 46.78 seconds at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Since then only four athletes have run under 47 seconds. This year, three athletes had run under 47 seconds and the 47 sec barrier was broken five times which was the most as it was broken once in 2018, 2020 and twice in 2019.
Karsten Warholm was the first one to break Kevin Young’s record as he ran in 46.70 at Oslo in July. At the Tokyo Olympics, history was again created as the medallists ran faster than Kevin’s timing to record the fastest race ever at the event. Karsten went on to become the first man to run the event under 46 seconds with a timing of 45.94 secs, Rai Benjamin was clocked at 46.17 and Alison dos Santos ran in 46.72.
The men’s event will be even more competitive next year as the top three athletes are in their early twenties. Santos is the youngest as he is 21 years old, Benjamin is 24 and current world record holder Warholm is 25. Karsten is the only one to run under 46 seconds and in total has run under 47 seconds a record four times. Benjamin has run three races in which he went under 47 seconds. Santos can maybe give tough competition to Warholm or even beat the Norwegian’s record at the event. Next year, the 400 metres hurdles will be the most closely fought track event as the men’s and women’s fields are filled with potential.
