At the U.S. Olympic trials in June 2021, Sydney McLaughlin became the first woman to run the event in under 52 seconds, improving Dalilah Muhammad's world record of 52.16 secs to 51.90. In Tokyo, both women ran inside the world record, with McLaughlin winning the gold medal with a new world record time of 51.46, while 2016 Olympic champion Muhammad ran 51.58 for the silver medal. Dutch athlete Femke Bol broke the European record with 52.03 for the bronze, to move to third on the world all-time list. Another three national records (for Colombia, Belgium and Panama) were set during the competition.
Background
This was the 10th appearance of the event, having appeared at every Olympics since 1984.
The three-round format of the event was introduced in 2012.[3]
Prior to this competition, the existing global and area records were as follows.
A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the women's 400 metres hurdles event if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard is 55.40 seconds. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF World Rankings pathway." The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 40 is reached.[2][5]
The qualifying period was originally from 1 May 2019 to 29 June 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The world rankings period start date was also changed from 1 May 2019 to 30 June 2020; athletes who had met the qualifying standard during that time were still qualified, but those using world rankings would not be able to count performances during that time. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the IAAF. Both indoor and outdoor meets are eligible. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period.[2][6]
NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one female athlete regardless of time if they had no female athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the 400 metres hurdles.[2]
Results
Round 1
Thirty-nine athletes from twenty-five nations competed in the five heats of round 1 on 31 July 2021, starting at 9:00 (UTC+9) in the morning.[1] The first four athletes in each heat (Q) and the next four fastest athletes overall (q) qualified to the semi-finals. In the first heat, Melissa Gonzalez of Colombia set a national record (NR) of 55.32s. In the second heat, Paulien Couckuyt of Belgium set a national record (NR) of 54.90s. In the third heat, Mariya Mykolenko of Ukraine received a yellow card for disturbing the start, Jessie Knight of Great Britain did not finish the race (DNF), and Leah Nugent of Jamaica was disqualified (DQ) for lane infringement (TR 17.3.1). In the fourth heat, Sparkle McKnight of Trinidad and Tobago did not start (DNS) and Ronda Whyte of Jamaica was disqualified for a false start (TR 16.8).[4]
Dalilah Muhammad of the United States in the first heat of the semi-finalsSydney McLaughlin of the United States in the second heat of the semi-finalsFemke Bol of the Netherlands in the third heat of the semi-finals
Twenty-four athletes from twenty nations competed in the three heats of the semi-finals on 2 August 2021, starting at 19:00 (UTC+9) in the evening.[1] The first two athletes in each heat (Q) and the next two fastest athletes overall (q) qualified for the final. In the first heat, Paulien Couckuyt of Belgium set a national record (NR) of 54.47s, improving her record from round 1. In the second heat, Gianna Woodruff of Panama set a national record (NR) of 54.22s. In the third heat, Sara Slott Petersen of Denmark was disqualified (DQ) for not going over every hurdle (TR 22.6).[7]
Eight athletes from five nations competed in the final on 4 August 2021 at 9:00 (UTF+9) in the morning.[1]
Knowing she had to run a world record, Muhammad was out fast clearing the first hurdle just ahead of McLaughlin and Bol. By the third hurdle, she had passed the athletes staggered to her outside. Muhammad kept the pressure up over each hurdle, with McLaughlin three lanes inside of her, watching her. Keeping pace, Bol was touching down just a fraction of a step behind McLaughlin. Those three separated from the rest of the field but kept the same pattern, Muhammad, McLaughlin, Bol over all ten hurdles. When she crossed the finish line, Muhammad had bettered the 6-week-old world record by almost a third of a second, 51.58. And McLaughlin had run faster from the last hurdle home to win, setting a new world record in 51.46. Bol was just barely behind the previous world record in 52.03, the #3 performer and #4 performance ever all in the same race.[8]
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