McLaughlin-Levrone Edges Closer To Perfection With 50.65-Second WR In 400-Meter Hurdles Final, Wraps Up Sensational Hour With Six Meet Records; Rai Benjamin Runs 46.46

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor 

John Nepolitan photos

EUGENE, Ore. - Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's otherworldly talent gave the Hayward Field crowd another indelible memory Sunday. 

There were six track finals in the span of a frenetic final hour at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. 

All six produced national championship records. 

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But the organizers of the meet, who built the schedule to crescendo on live TV, knew what they were doing by ending the show with McLaughlin-Levrone taking center stage. 

America's greatest track athlete delivered, as she always has, when the lights shine brightest. 

Two years after breaking the world record at the Oregon22 World Athletics Championships with 50.68, McLaughlin-Levrone covered one lap with 10 hurdles a little bit faster: 50.65. 

"I knew I was in 50-point high range and it was just a matter of getting the stride pattern down. I knew the fitness was there," she said. "I was a little shocked that it came together without the best stride pattern, that I was expecting, but definitely grateful to know the fitness is there and there is more we can work on."

Attendance for the final day of the 10-day competition was 12,243. 

McLaughlin-Levrone has now broken the world record in the event five times, including four times at Hayward Field. At 24 she has made her third Olympic team. 

She missed the 2023 season due to a hamstring injury, and has raced sparingly in 2024, but every time she has touched the track she has come prepared to impress.

McLaughlin-Levrone ran 53.07 seconds in the first round and a world-leading 52.48 on Saturday in the semifinals.

Well behind her on Sunday, Anna Cockrell ran a lifetime-best 52.64 seconds to make her second Olympic team and USC's Jasmine Jones ran a personal-best 52.77 seconds for third to make the team for the first time. 

Cockrell and Jones overlapped for a year at USC and the Trojans' impact on the event Sunday didn't end with them. 

Rai Benjamin, another USC alum, ran a world-leading 46.46 seconds for his third-fastest time and the fifth-fastest race in history. 

Benjamin, who took silver behind Norway's Karsten Warholm in the epic 2021 final in Tokyo, is firing on all cylinders. 

"Execution-wise, I'd give it a C-plus," Benjamin said of his race. "I hit like maybe three or four hurdles, because I was really hot in the warm-up and too amped up, and I was actually going for it today and when I hit two on the backstretch I had to back off and settle into this weird rhythm."

Benjamin made it work. 

He'll be joined in Paris by CJ Allen, a 2017 Washington State graduate who never made an NCAA outdoor final. Allen has come on the past couple of years as a pro and ran a season-best 47.81. 

Trevor Bassitt, who always seems to find a big race when he needs it most, shook off a disappointing season to perform his best race when it counted most and ran 47.82. 

One spot out was Alabama's Chris Robinson, the NCAA runner-up, who was fourth in 47.96. 

Benjamin marveled at McLaughlin-Levrone's performance, which followed his by a few minutes.

"She's been like that since high school," Benjamin said. "Every time she runs there's pressure and expectations and she always steps up and delivers."