Kentucky wildcat Sydney McLaughlin shattered her own world record of 51.90 set at the Trials in June by clocking 51.46. Her US teammate and former world record holder and defending Olympic and World champion Delilah Muhammad came second also below the former WR in 51,58.
A repeat of what two men did a day before. Amazing,
I had heard that track in Tokyo was crazy fast. I’m starting to believe it.
Yeah, like the one in Eugene. What is interesting to me is they had both 400M Hurdles finals in Tokyo daytime to suit American prince time audience. Usually track finals are run in the evening hours. And they still ran amazing times.
Supposedly there is new spike technology that is making runners faster too. I’m not sure exactly what that is, but I’ve heard they have carbon fiber plates in the soles and lots of foam.
Before the Mexico City Olympics in '68 Puma was making track shoes that, as I recall, had brush-like soles instead of individual spikes, which were supposedly faster, especially on the new Tartan tracks. IAAF soon ruled the brush spikes illegal (it’s rumored Adidas bribed them to do so). More recently, swimming ruled the bodysuits illegal. I wonder if the same thing will happen here.
As I suspected, the Tokyo track is Mondo, who also made the tracks at UA, indoor and outdoor. It has the very latest technology, of course. But it’s also had virtually no use since it was installed until the Games began, and it’s been baking in the Tokyo sun all summer, both of which may make it a little faster.
I remember a host of new records were set with those bodysuits in swimming. When they ruled those suits illegal, they said some of these records will remain on the books for a long long time. But as we stand today, most of those records, if not all, have been broken. Humans are getting faster and stronger using technology, new training methods and diets.
New designs in facilities, equipment, attire, etc. may help in breaking WR’s. But it still takes the elite dedicated athletes to accomplish it. The gap is so narrow between some of these is simply amazing. Considering 1st and 2nd place finishers are both breaking WR’s.
FYI. Last 4 races between Sydney McLaughlin and Delilah Muhammad have gone like this.
'19 US Nationals
'19 World Championshios
'21 US Olympic Trials
'21 Olympics
4 for 4.
Those are amazing records, thanks for listing. It was a blast watching some of these 99.99999999% humans.
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