TOKYO WOW MOMENTS - PART III - Womens 400m Hurdles - The handing of the torch

 

If the men's 400m hurdles was being touted as the race of the century, the women's version almost outdid it. Now a bit a history and rivalry to this race. Dalilah Muhammad has been the undisputed queen of the quarter mile hurdles for nearly a half a decade. She won gold in Rio and was the World Champion in 2019 and set the WR of 52.16 in that race. That golden run led her to be named the Womens track and field athlete of the year in 2019. 

Sydney Mclaughlin who is 9 years Dalilah's junior was a prodigy in her junior years. She was breaking high school and university records and was the youngest US athlete to qualify for the Rio Olympics at the age of 17 , but went out in the semi finals. Since then she has been getting better and better. 

Before the Tokyo Olympics - both Dalilah and Sydney went head to head in the US trials. The race was the standout one of the US trials with Sydney eclipsing Dalilah and setting a new WR, becoming the first women athlete to run that distance under 52s. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DATsj8mzD2g

So heading into the olympics, both women knew that they would have to run the race of their lives to beat the other and win gold. Then there was the prodigal European Femke Bol who had also the talent to play spoilsport to their epic face off.  As the gun went off Dalilah blazed off the starting blocks setting the early pace, eating up the track and her fellow competitors. Sydney kept pace with a steady rhythm but was clearly behind Muhammad heading into the final straight. The last 2 hurdles saw the power and pace of Sydney coming through. You could see Dalilah pushing with everything that she had but Sydney had that extra zip in the final 20 meters. The time was again a new WR of 51.46 with Dalilah coming through for the silver in 51.58. 

Sydney has publicly credited the presence of Dalilah as the reason for her being able to push herself to break these records. Dalilah has a few more years left in her corner, but the torch has been handed over in this  event. Sydney definitely has her hands firmly on the crown but  a new rivalry blooming between the two 22 year olds - Sydney & Femke (who finished 3rd and took bronze) can only mean great thing to come in the future.