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Tag: Record

  • An Amazing World Record Runs Into a Question: Was It Too Amazing?

    Tobi Amusan of Nigeria set a world record in the women’s 100-meter hurdles on Sunday at the world track and field championships in Eugene, Ore. That by itself was not surprising: World records often fall at big events, after all.

    What raised eyebrows, though, was not the result but the margin by which Amusan broke the record, and the sheer number of personal and national records set by competitors in the event.

    The fourth-, fifth-, sixth- and eighth-placed runners in Amusan’s heat, a semifinal, also ran their best times ever. The other three runners ran their best times of the year.

    Even Amusan looked stunned when she saw her time — 12.12 seconds — on a stadium scoreboard.

    Amusan’s time of 12.12 broke the old record of 12.20, held by the American Kendra Harrison since 2016, by 0.08 of a second — a huge drop in an event often decided by the finest of margins. The four most recent world records in the event, for example, broke the previous marks by 0.01, 0.04, 0.01 and 0.03 seconds.

    The last time the record was lowered by such a large margin was in 1980.

    The confluence of fleet times made some wonder if something was wrong with the timing system, or even with the wind gauge, which when the race began showed a tail wind of 0.924 meters per second, well within the legal limit of 2.0.

    Could all of the hurdlers have run such personal-best races at the same time? At least one expert wasn’t so sure.

    The 200- and 400-meter legend Michael Johnson, who was working the worlds as a BBC television commentator, led the charge of doubt over the times, which the meet’s own social media accounts labeled, apparently unironically, “unbelievable.”

    “I don’t believe 100h times are correct,” he wrote on Twitter. “World record broken by .08! 12 PBs set. 5 National records set.”

    Johnson noted that at least one of the runners, Cindy Sember of Britain, had suggested she felt she had been running slow. “All athletes looked shocked,” Johnson added.

    (In the equivalent men’s race, the 110-meter hurdles, there was only one personal best in the semifinals and one in the final.)

    Amusan’s time was unusually fast even for her: 0.28 of a second faster than her previous best time of 12.40, set in the heats on Saturday. That improvement represented a staggering margin in such a short race.

    The second and third semifinals of the women’s 100 meters also had a lot of fast times, although not as many as the first. In the second semifinal, the top five finishers ran or equaled their personal bests. The third semifinal had two personal bests and three more season bests.

    And comparing the speedy semifinal times to the final two hours later is difficult, because the wind was at the runners’ backs for that race, at 2.524 meters per second. Amusan won the gold medal in an even faster time — 12.06 seconds — but that mark will not count as a record because it was deemed wind-aided.

    While her semifinal time was startling, there was no questioning that Amusan, 25, was capable of winning the championship. After capturing an N.C.A.A. title at Texas-El Paso, she won the gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2021 Diamond League final. She placed fourth in the final at the Tokyo Olympics last year. Even Johnson noted that he had predicted she would win.

    But perhaps because her gold was the first for Nigeria in any event at a world championships, there was plenty of pushback on Twitter to Johnson’s skepticism, with some accusing him of bias against Amusan, an African athlete who broke a record held by an American.

    After briefly mixing it up with several critics online, Johnson eventually dismissed the accusations of bias, writing: “As a commentator my job is to comment. In questioning the times of 28 athletes (not 1 athlete) by wondering if the timing system malfunctioned, I was attacked, accused of racism, and of questioning the talent of an athlete I respect and predicted to win. Unacceptable. I move on.”

  • Sydney McLaughlin Broke Her Own World Record. Again.

    There was a time, not so long ago, when Sydney McLaughlin was challenged whenever she planted herself in the starting blocks for the 400-meter hurdles. She knew she would face stiff competition from the likes of Dalilah Muhammad, a graceful runner with an impressive list of achievements.

    For the past couple of years, however, McLaughlin has lifted herself to a different level. She has repeatedly smashed the world record to smithereens, rendering her rivals — none of them slouches — into background noise as she pushes the boundaries of what seems possible in her profession.

    Already the reigning Olympic gold medalist, McLaughlin on Friday night broke the world record for the fourth time in two years, demolishing a deep and decorated field in 50.68 seconds to win her first world championship.

    Femke Bol of the Netherlands was second in 52.27 seconds, and Muhammad finished third in 53.13.

    For the indefinite future, McLaughlin’s only real battle appears to be with the clock: When will she break the world record next?

    Some context might help. Consider that McLaughlin would have defeated two of the women who advanced to Friday’s 400-meter final — while clearing 10 hurdles. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Consider, too, that she trimmed 0.73 seconds from her previous world record, which she had set 27 days earlier at the U.S. championships.

    Most absurd of all? McLaughlin sees room for improvement.

    “I think we’re all figuring out that, yes, there are 10 barriers, but we can run them a lot faster than people think,” she said, adding: “I still think that wasn’t even a super clean race.”

    Undefeated in the 400-meter hurdles since 2019, when she finished second to Muhammad at the world championships in Doha, Qatar, McLaughlin, 22, has emerged as one of track and field’s most dominant athletes in a discipline that should be one of its most competitive.

    Muhammad, who used to own the world record until McLaughlin came along, is an Olympic and world champion. And while injuries have interrupted her training, she is still a fearsome athlete at 32.

    “I was kind of nervous, honestly, going into this meet, not knowing where my fitness level would be,” Muhammad said. “So to get a medal shows my resilience as an athlete.”

    Bol, 22, who won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics behind McLaughlin and Muhammad, could be the contemporaneous rival who pushes McLaughlin through the 2024 Paris Olympics, and perhaps beyond. Bol owns the seventh-fastest time in history. (The six times ahead of her belong to McLaughlin and Muhammad.)

    But there is still a gap between McLaughlin and Bol, one that was evident as early evening shadows fell across the track at Hayward Field and McLaughlin opened up an enormous lead by the halfway point. Her romp down the homestretch might as well have been a victory lap. No one was close to her.

    “I would definitely say it’s a flow state,” she said, “where you’re putting everything that you’ve done in practice into the race to the point where you’re just letting your body do what it does.”

    McLaughlin, who grew up in central New Jersey and was a teenage prodigy at Union Catholic High School, is quite simply the fastest women’s 400-meter hurdler in history. After breaking Muhammad’s world record in 2021 at the U.S. Olympic trials, McLaughlin broke it again a few weeks later when she won gold at the Tokyo Olympics. Muhammad finished second in both races.

    Last month, McLaughlin seemed fairly impassive when she lowered the record again, running 51.41 seconds at the U.S. championships. Muhammad, who had an automatic bid to worlds as the defending champion, chose not to compete.

    In the run-up to the world championship final, McLaughlin was primed for another extraordinary performance. On Wednesday, she demolished the field in her semifinal heat, slowing several meters from the finish to win in 52.17 seconds, which would have been the world record just three years ago.

    As for the future, McLaughlin said she would discuss her options with her coach, Bobby Kersee, at the end of the season. She left open the possibility that she could compete in the 400 meters or the 100-meter hurdles — or some combination of events. In any case, there are more championships to chase and records to break.

    “My coach thinks there’s a lot more to be done,” she said.

  • Noah Lyles Sets an American Record

    Noah Lyles is the best in the world again.

    Lyles, the reigning 200-meter world champion who only managed a bronze medal at last year’s Olympics, won a second consecutive world title Thursday night in Eugene, Ore. Lyles won with a time of 19.31, the third-fastest time ever, holding off a stacked field that included the sport’s rising star, Erriyon Knighton, who is just 18 years old and probably won’t be held off for long. Lyles put a significant gap between him and the talented field, winning by almost a half second, and he said he didn’t realize that Knighton finished third, and not second, until they walked up to the podium.

    “That’s how big the gap was,” Lyles said with a smile.

    For weeks, Lyles had said he welcomed the push from Knighton, saying he had been waiting for it for a while now. Knighton pushed, but ultimately could not manage more than that. Knighton, who stumbled finished third in 19.80 seconds, three-hundredths behind Kenny Bednarek to complete an American sweep.

    Lyles, who is known to be a slow starter, blasted around the turn. He said the quick turn came because Knighton and Bednarek “put the fear of god in him.”

    “That was definitely start of my life,” Lyles said.

    The only question coming down the stretch seemed to be whether he might be able to top Usain Bolt’s world record. He missed that but broke Michael Johnson’s American record by one-hundredth of a second.

    Lyles spread his hands wide as he crossed the finish line then turned to the scoreboard to see his time. At first, it said he tied Johnson’s record. He knelt on the track and placed his hands in a prayer position. When his eyes were closed and his back was turned, the scoreboard changed to 19.31. When Lyles saw the correct time, he jumped in the air and ripped off his singlet.

    “I finally got to do what I dreamed about for years,” he said.

    The showdown between Lyles and Knighton in the 200 was among the most anticipated of the world championships. It pitted the present of American sprinting against its future, though Knighton had been making a very strong case this spring that his time is now.

    For the better part of a year, Knighton had been inching closer to Lyles in their head-to-head matchups.

    At the U.S. Olympic Trials last year, 0.10 seconds separated Lyles and Knighton. Lyles was first, Knighton was third.

    At the Tokyo Games a month later, Knighton slipped 0.19 seconds behind. He finished fourth, one place behind Lyles.

    Last month, at the U.S. national championship meet, Knighton finished just 0.02 seconds behind Lyles. They were first and second.

    But that race happened a month after Knighton ran the 200 in 19.49 seconds at an invitational meet at L.S.U. to break the under-20 world record. Lyles was not in that race.

    “He backed up his talk. Lyles got out and he didn’t look back,” Jonathan Terry, one of Knighton’s coaches said in a phone interview from Tampa, Fla. “I’m happy my guy made the podium.”

    Lyles and Knighton are friendly. Both are based in Florida. At 25, Lyles is seven years older, but when he is in good spirits, which he certainly has been lately, he goofs off and mugs for the camera on the track. He wears his emotions on his bib, and has shared his story about his battles with mental health.

    Knighton, on the other hand, is all business, on the track and off. He is a man of few words. He speaks softly and lets his running do the talking, expressing himself through his speed and his speed alone. For Knighton, the track is not a place for games. It is a place for work. He has not been running at the elite level long enough to understand the cruel roller coaster that his pursuit entails. There have been no downs, only ups.

    “It feels good, it’s my first medal,” Knighton said. He was reserved when talking with the reporters after the race, not showing the excitement that some would expect from a person who just became the youngest medalist in world championship history. “I just got to get time to think about what I just did,” he said.

    Lyles, who was a favorite to win the gold medal in the 200 at the Tokyo Olympics, struggled last year and during the pandemic. Earlier this week, he chalked up his resurgence to his new understanding that he runs because he is a performer who thrives off a crowd, something he did not get a chance to do for nearly two years.

    “I got a crowd,” he yelled on the track after it was over.

    That crowd was there for him last night, and they were also there for Knighton. With Bednarek, the reigning Olympic silver medalist, also in the field, there was talk of another American sweep, just like the one in the 100 on Saturday night.

    And just like last weekend, the Americans lived up to the hype.

    Jeré Longman contributed reporting.