It’s all set, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will not defend her 400m hurdle title at the World Championships in Budapest this summer. Instead, she’ll concentrate on her new event, the 400m.
The news was first reported by the LA Times on Wednesday. After thoughts of doubling in both the 400m hurdles and the open 400m at Budapest, McLaughlin-Levrone’s legendary coach said, “The double does not allow us, I think, the proper amount of time and recovery to do both and I think the bigger challenge would obviously be to see how we can do in the 400.”
“We won our nationals, which is hard to win and we did it in good fashion, so I think that we want to continue moving forward with the challenge,” Kersee added.
McLaughlin-Levrone had a fantastic showing at the U.S. Championships early in July, winning the women’s 400m with a fantastic time of 48.75, just missing breaking Sanya Richards-Ross’s American record in the event (48.70).
McLaughlin-Levrone has been the face of the 400m hurdles since 2020. She holds the world record in the event with her personal best time of 50.68, which she set last year at the World Championships in Eugene.
Kersee said that he and McLaughlin-Levrone have not decided on what event that they will run at the 2024 Olympic Trials.
