Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wins the 400 meters in near-record time at U.S. championships

For much of the last year Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the world record-holder in the 400-meter hurdles, has left the track and field world wondering what her potential could be over the same distance without the hurdles in her way.

On Saturday at the U.S. track and field championships McLaughlin-Levrone offered a definitive answer — yet another American record is now within her reach.

In the final of the women’s 400, McLaughlin-Levrone, who trains in Los Angeles under coach Bobby Kersee, won in 48.74 seconds to clock history’s 10th-fastest time — just behind Sanya Richards-Ross’ U.S. record of 48.70 set in 2006.

Running in Lane 4, just to the outside of her chief challenger, Britton Wilson of Arkansas, McLaughlin-Levrone made up the entire stagger on the rest of the field by 200 meters, which she passed in 23.24 seconds. She removed all suspense by barely slowing, finishing more than a second ahead of Wilson‘s 49.79.

The time raised again the question of whether she will attempt to run both the 400 and 400 hurdles at August’s world championships in Hungary. Her decision isn’t due for another month, because federations such as U.S. Track & Field have until Aug. 7 to submit their final entries.

At numerous moments since smashing the world record in the hurdles at 50.68 seconds at last summer’s world championships, she has been asked whether her future is in the 400, the 400 hurdles, or both.

“The reality is, I don’t know,” McLaughlin-Levrone said on her YouTube channel before her season-opening race in June in Paris, where she ran the first 200 hard to Kersee’s wishes but faded to second in the final homestretch. Less than two weeks later in New York, she wanted to finish in less than 49 seconds but finished half a second slower, a result she said that left her content but also still searching for how to put “the pieces” of the race together.

They came together this weekend in Eugene.

While winning her preliminary heat Friday at the U.S. championships, McLaughlin-Levrone won by a gaping margin and barely appeared winded afterward. Yet she has acknowledged that the transition to the 400, with its far different technique than the choreographed stride pattern of the 400 hurdles, has not been all ease.

“Since the beginning of the year I feel like this year has not come easy to me, which is a good thing,” she said on her YouTube channel. “Which is the Lord’s plan to challenge me. … I think I’m just learning to be patient.”

Now track and field must be patient to wait for her plan for the world championships, and whether her hold on the sport can expand from one event to two.