In the end it wasn’t even a race for the Olympic gold medal, nor one with any hint of a rivalry, it was simply Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone once again running into another realm of her own in the women’s 400 metres hurdles, touching on the once seemingly impossible too.
In her fourth successive final, McLaughlin-Levrone broke her own world record for the fourth time, her 50.37 seconds obliterating the 50.65 she ran to win the US Olympic trials in June, and a time which would have left her just one place short of making the final of the 400m flat. Those 10 barriers clearly mean little to her.
With that the 25-year-old from New Jersey also put a full second and a half on US teammate Anna Cockrell, who passed the fading Dutch star Femke Bol in the final to take silver in 51.87, Bol holding on for bronze in 52.15.
Despite also breaking 51 seconds this year, running 50.95, Bol couldn’t get anywhere near McLaughlin-Levrone, who ran her first world record of 51.46 to win the gold medal in Tokyo, before improving that again to 50.68 to win the 2022 World Championship title.
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Now she’s touching on the 50-second barrier, and leaving Bol further than the track than ever before.
“All you want to do in an Olympic final is to put up your best race,” said Bol, who had helped the Dutch win gold in the 4x400 mixed relay. “I screwed it up. I’m not sure where I made the mistake.”
Letsile Tebogo had his own motivation going into the men’s 200m, and the memory of his mother Seratiwa, who died after a short illness in May, aged 47.
In winning gold there in 19.46 seconds, the 21-year-old from Botswana also ran 100m champion Noah Lyles from the USA into third, Lyles later revealing he tested positive for Covid two days ago.
“It’s basically me carrying her through every stride that I take inside the field,” Tebogo said, explaining why his mother’s initials and date of birth were inscribed onto his spikes. “it gives me a lot of motivation. She’s watching up there, and she’s really, really happy. I didn’t want to put the date of her death, because I’ll get emotional.”
The southern African country of just over 2.3 million people, Botswana is also one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world, and Tebogo becomes their first gold medal winner, and only second ever African sprint champion.
Grant Holloway from the USA ended his wait for the one title that eluded him, winning the 110m hurdles ahead his teammate Daniel Roberts, and Tara Davis-Woodhall won a second medal for the USA on the night, her victory in the long jump coming with a best of 7.10m
Pakistan’s Arshad Hadeem threw an extraordinary 92.97m to win the javelin, taking that crown from defending Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra from India who won silver his 89.45m.
The sole Irish interest in the Stade de France on Thursday was Kate O’Connor on the opening day of the women’s heptathlon, and she finished the day in 19th of the 22 still in contention, on 908 points, going into day two.
Her two events in the evening session were in the shot put, where she threw 13.79m, before running a season’s best of 24.77 in the 200, just 0.04 of a second off her personal best.
“The shot could have been a bit better but it was pretty solid, it wasn’t terrible,” she said. “I don’t think I lost too much there. I’m really proud of that 200m. It was only five or six weeks ago that I tore my hamstring. To run 0.04 off my personal best from lane two, I can’t complain with that.” On Friday morning, the women’s 4x400m relay team will race in heat two of their event (9.40 am Irish time), only the top three making Saturday’s, plus the two fastest non-qualifying times.
Their heat features European champions Netherlands, World championships silver medallists Jamaica, as well as Poland, whose team won relay silver in Tokyo. But after that they shouldn’t have anything to fear, the Irish quartet likely to be Sophie Becker, Phil Healy, Kelly McGrory, and Sharlene Mawdsley.
Mark English may need to lower his national record to make a final of the men’s 800m, six of those in his semi-final (10.30am) having faster seasons best times, including gold medal favourite Djamel Sedjati from Algeria, who has run 1:41.46 this year.
Sarah Lavin also goes in the second of the three semi-finals in the 100m hurdles (11.13 Irish time) with only the top two in each making the final, along with two non-automatic time qualifying spots, and she’ll likely need a new Irish record too.
