Expresso Platform: Big Games | Sydney McLaughlin sets world record in 400m hurdles Olympic title

North American Sydney McLaughlin was crowned on Wednesday the Olympic champion in the 400-meter hurdles, at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020, in a race that improved the world record that already belongs to her.

At the Tokyo Olympic Stadium, the 21-year-old McLaughlin raced for gold in 51.46 seconds, dropping off the previous world high of 51.90 he set in June.

Citizen Dalilah Muhammad, who was looking to re-check the title achieved at the Olympic Games Rio 2016, won the silver, also lower than the previous world record (51.58 seconds).

Dutchman Vimki Paul completed the podium by taking the bronze medal with a mark of 52.03 seconds, a new European record, with a mark of 52.34, which belonged to Russian Yulia Bikonkina for 19 years.

Sydney McLaughlin won her first Olympic title in Tokyo, having arrived in 2016, at the age of 16, at the Rio de Janeiro Games as the youngest female athlete in the United States since 1972.

In 2019, Sydney McLaughlin was the runner-up at the World Championships in Doha, behind Dalilah Mohamed, who on that occasion improved his own world record, which the new Olympic champion was expelled last June.