BREAKS -400M HURDLES- RECORD : MCLAUGHLIN HONOURS

McLaughlin breaks the 400m hurdles world record. And shaves five-hundredths of a second off her previous mark to clock 51.4 sec at US trials.

Sydney McLaughlin punched her ticket to the athletics World Championships with a world record of 51.41 sec victory in the 400m hurdles at the US trials on Saturday.

McLaughlin shaved five-hundredths of a second off the world record of 51.46 she set in winning Tokyo Olympics gold last August 4 delivering a dominant performance at Eugene's Hayward Field that saw runner-up Britton Wilson cross the line more than a second back in 53.08 sec.

Shammier Little was third in 53.92.The trio will represent the United States on the same Hayward Field track in July -when reigning world champion Dalilah Muhammad also aims to defend her title.

With a bye as champion Muhammad - who beat McLaughlin in Doha in 2019 but took silver behind her in Tokyo  -received a waiver to skip the trials to recover from a hamstring injury.

McLaughlin showed she didn't need her great rival to push her to new heights in this championship season, and sounded a warning for those coming to challenge her in Eugene, where she broke the world record for the first time last June.

''Anytime I come here I can just feel something amazing is going to happen,'' McLaughlin said.

She said nothing compared the ''awe'' of breaking the world record for the first time - but that doesn't mean she won't be aiming to do it again next month.

''This is just a great indicator of where we are,'' she said. ''Hopefully we're going to go home and work on a few things and try to come back and improve on it.''

Her performance capped a day of 11 finals and a farewell to the US championships for Olympic great Allyson Felix - 21 years after she ran in her first.

The World Students Society thanks AFP.