Sydney McLaughlin anchors US on record-setting day at worlds
She was joined on the 4x400 relay by fellow Kentucky Wildcat Abby Steiner.
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Sydney McLaughlin took the final victorious lap of an All-American world championships Sunday, pulling away in the 4x400-meter relay to close a U.S. runaway and give the Americans their record 33rd medal of the meet.
McLaughlin turned a .73-second lead into a 2.93-second laugher on the anchor lap, adding this burst of speed to the world record she set two nights earlier in the 400 hurdles. She was joined on the 4x400 relay by fellow Kentucky Wildcat Abby Steiner.
Two more world records went down Sunday — in the very first and very last action of the last session at Hayward Field.
Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan opened the evening by setting the record for the 100-meter hurdles in the semifinals: 12.12 seconds. She came back about 90 minutes later to win the gold medal. Her winning time was actually faster — 12.06 — but the wind was too strong, so that mark doesn’t go in the books.
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn finished third and Keni Harrison finished in last.
“When I watched the record, I was like ‘Whoa, who did that?’” Amusan said.
And after McLaughlin was done with her last lap, pole vaulter Armand Duplantis of Sweden cleared 6.21 meters (20 feet, 4 1/2 inches) to best his world record by .01.
He gave Sweden its first gold medal of the meet. That was 12 fewer than the Americans.
The last was especially sweet, as it also marked the 14th and final world gold for 36-year-old Allyson Felix, who came out of retirement to run in the preliminary of the 4x400 and, so, gets a medal. She finishes her career with a record 20 world medals, overall.
“We’re a family, we stick together,” McLaughlin said. “Allyson came out of retirement to get us here, so we wanted to do this.”
The U.S. won the women’s race in 3 minutes, 17.79 seconds.
The 33 medals was three more than the U.S. collected in 2017.
One of America’s golds went to Athing Mu in the 800.
She busted through the two laps in 1:56.30 — a .08 margin over Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson. The 20-year-old Mu is now the Olympic and world champion at that distance and, along with McLaughlin, part of a bright future for the United States.
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