EUGENE, Ore. — It was, arguably, the greatest single performance in the history of women’s track and field. And Hayward Field fans thought they had already witnessed that two years ago.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone set a fifth world record – and that’s a record, too – in the 400-meter hurdles to cap a 10-day run of the U.S. Olympic Trials on Sunday.
McLaughlin-Levrone’s time was 50.65 seconds, bettering by .03 the record she set at the 2022 World Championships. It was one of the fastest mass finishes ever, featuring the first race to have four women under 53 seconds, and she still won by nearly two seconds.
The women’s 400 hurdles was Sunday’s sixth race, all setting meet records, to apply an exclamation point to a trials as great as any of the seven others held at Hayward.
Attendance was announced as 12,242 ticketed spectators.
McLaughlin-Levrone has set all her world records since June 21, four of them at Hayward. By comparison, Edwin Moses, who was unbeaten for 10 years, set four world records in the men’s 400 hurdles.
Also by comparison:
On World Athletics’ scoring tables assigning points so that performances can be weighed, Florence Griffith Joyner’s world record of 10.49 seconds in the 100 meters at Indianapolis in 1988 earns 1,314. That time has long been alleged to be wind-aided.
McLaughlin-Levrone’s time is assigned one point less, 1,313.
Anna Cockrell and Jasmine Jones, both out of USC, finished second and third in 52.64 and 52.77.
Shamier Little was fourth in 52.98 and former world record-holder Dalilah Muhammad sixth in 54.27.
This will be the third Olympics for McLaughlin-Levrone, 24, who made it as a 16-year-old New Jersey high schooler in 2016.
In the men’s 400 hurdles, Rai Benjamin, formerly of USC, broke his own meet record with a world-leading time of 46.46. C.J. Allen was second in 47.41, Trevor Bassitt third in 47.82.
Texas Tech’s Caleb Dean was close to Benjamin through seven hurdles but hit the eighth, and was out of it.
Kara Winger of Vancouver, Wash., needed to throw 210 feet (64 meters) to qualify for the Olympics, and fell short in finishing second. Winger, 38, a four-time Olympian, threw 206-6 on her final attempt.
Other historically fast mass finishes came in the women’s 100-meter hurdles and 1,500 meters.
Masai Russell, formerly of the University of Kentucky (as is McLaughlin-Levrone), clocked a world-leading 12.25. Alyahsha Johnson and Grace Stark were second and third, both in 12.31.
Former world champion Nia Ali was fourth in 12.37, a time that would have won a gold medal at the 2021 Olympics. Keni Harrison was sixth in 12.39, faster than what she ran to win silver at Tokyo.
Nikki Hiltz led a parade of six women under the meet record in the 1,500, and eight under four minutes.
Hiltz clocked 3:55.33 in beating world indoor medalists Emily Mackay, 3:55.90, and Elle St. Pierre, 3:55.99.
Sinclaire Johnson was fourth in 3:56.75 and 32-year-old Cory McGee fifth in 3:57:44 for her first-ever sub-4:00.
St. Pierre, who set a fast pace with a 2:05.55 opening 800, said afterward she would drop the 5,000 and concentrate on the 1,500 at the Paris Olympics.
Grant Fisher became the first to win a 5,000/10,000 double at the trials since Oregon’s Galen Rupp in 2012.
Fisher broke away before three laps remained and broke Rupp’s trials record with a time of 13:08.85. Stunningly, Fisher ran the last 1,200 meters in 2:58.85.
Abdi Nur was second in 13:09.01 and NCAA champion Parker Wolfe of North Carolina third in 13:10.75.
Former Oregon runners Cole Hocker, Cooper Teare and Sam Prakel were seventh, 12th and 16th, respectively. University of Portland graduate Woody Kincaid, needing the Olympic standard, led during four early laps before falling to ninth place.
Hocker was already on the Olympic team, setting a trials record of 3:30.59 in Monday's 1,500.
World indoor champion Bryce Hoppel ran to a trials record of 1:42.77 in the 800 meters. Twenty-year-old Hobbs Kessler, already on the team in the 1,500, was second in 1:43.64.
Bridget Williams surprisingly won the women’s pole vault at 15-6 ¼, the same height cleared by world and Olympic champion Katie Moon and Roberts Wesleyan University’s Brynn King.
Sandi Morris, 31, a seven-time global medalist, was fourth at 15-4 ¼ -- and thus off the team.
Another casualty came in the high jump, in which world silver medalist JuVaughn Harrison finished fourth. Unless third-place Tyus Wilson can’t make the Paris cut on the basis of world ranking, Harrison stays home. Shelby McEwen won it by jumping 7-6 ½.
Daniel Haugh won a riveting hammer competition, winning with a distance of 260-10. He climbed from fourth to first in the third round. Rudy Winkler was second at 258-10 and Justin Stafford third at 252-10.
Contact KGW correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.
