Sanya Richards-Ross' 2006 Record Broken In World Championships Semifinal

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor 

Logan Hannigan-Downs photo

TOKYO -- With barriers or without, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is the greatest female quarter-miler in American history. 

In Tuesday's 400-meter semifinals at the World Athletics Championships, McLaughlin-Levrone made 48.29 look effortless and took nearly half a second off Sanya Richards-Ross' 19-year-old American record. Richards-Ross ran 48.70 at the World Cup in Athens, Greece in 2006.

The performance surely sent a message to the two women who have been on top of the world list, Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic and Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain. 

The final on Thursday is shaping up to be must-see viewing. 

"Honored, for sure," McLaughlin said of the record-breaking run. "I wasn't expecting that time, but it shows the fitness is there, I'm set up for the finals and am grateful to have taken down a record by an amazing woman."

McLaughlin's time makes her the seventh fastest in world history, and still behind Paulino and Naser on that list. 

It also puts her 400-meter best almost two seconds faster than her world record in the 400-meter hurdles, the event that she has shelved for 2025, which is 50.37. 

McLaughlin-Levrone won her first Olympic gold medals in an empty Japan National Stadium in the summer of 2021, where she won the 400-meter hurdles final in 51.46 seconds and then carried the baton for the U.S. in the 4x400 relay. 

Paulino ran in the first of three semifinal heats and let up at end, finishing second in 49.82 seconds. El Naser won the second semi in 49.47 seconds. 

McLaughln-Levrone got out smooth, coasted the back stretch and remained powerful coming off the final curve and down the homestretch. 

Well behind her, Amber Anning of Great Britain edged out former Arkansas teammate Nickisha Pryce of Jamaica, 49.38 to 49.46 for the second automatic qualifying berth. Pryce got into the final as one of the two fastest outside of the top two, and it bumped their training partner, Isabella Whittaker of the U.S., out of the final by one spot.