In the American team, they no longer count their successes in gold medals.

"The most important thing," said 800-meter Olympic champion Athing Mu, when she qualified for Sunday's final on Friday evening: "We have a chance of a sweep." The American sprinters already have 100 and 200 meter races claimed all places on the podium for themselves, as did the American shot putters – and the Jamaican sprinters.

Michael Reinsch

Correspondent for sports in Berlin.

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Middle-distance runners Mu, Raevin Rogers and Ajee Wilson could become the first American athletes to clinch gold, silver and bronze at the first American World Track and Field Championships, which concludes Sunday in Eugene, Oregon. contribute heavy medal table.

Going into the weekend, when the crowd expects wins from the men's sprint relay and medals from both 4 x 400-meter relays, Team USA has 9 titles and 26 medals - three times as many as the Ethiopian team won second place;

it won three competitions.

The courageous Femke Bol from the Netherlands did not prevent a sweep, but the most spectacular victory of this world championship was brought to her home country by 22-year-old Sydney McLaughlin on Friday evening.

The Tokyo 2021 Olympic champion broke the world record for the fourth time in two years in an amazing run over 400 meters hurdles.

On Friday evening, in front of around 20,000 enthusiastic spectators in the new Hayward Field, she was 73 hundredths of a second faster than in her Olympic victory in Tokyo last year and was the first runner in the world to cross the finish line in less than 51 seconds: after 50.68 seconds.

It was not until June 2021 that she was the first to break the sound barrier of 52 seconds with the world record of 51.90 seconds.

The organizers enthusiastically commented on a "Beamon-like performance", alluding to Bob Beamon's long jump world record from 1968. The 8.90 meters from the Olympic Games in Mexico remained unmatched for 23 years.

In comparison, Sydney McLaughlin would have won the German championship this year with her record by more than half a second – that of the men.

Femke Bol finished second with a clear deficit in 52.27 seconds and thus prevented an American sweep.

Dalilah Muhammad was third in 53.13 seconds, followed by Shamier Little (53.76) and Britton Wilson (54.02).

After her win and a little sit-in on the Hayward Field lawn to savor her success, the athlete announced that she wanted to diversify her amazing talent.

She and her trainer Bob Kersee, trainer and husband of former heptathlete and long jumper Jacky Joyner-Kersee, made the 400m hurdles a competition that people wanted to see.

Now the coach is talking about the possibility of attacking the world records over 400 meters flat or 100 meters hurdles.

The athlete and her trainer put the spotlight on best performances from the heyday of doping, which contaminate the record lists to this day.

Marita Koch from Rostock has held the world record over 400 meters since 1985 with 47.60 seconds.

The then DDR runner and her rival Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czechoslovakia are the only athletes to have beaten 48 seconds on the stadium loop;

Kratochvilova has held the world record for the 800 meters since 1983 with a time of 1:53.28 minutes.

The world association of track and field athletes refused to introduce new record lists at the turn of the millennium.

The world record over 100 meters hurdles has been held since 2016 with 12.20 seconds by the American Kendra Harrison, second at the 2021 Olympic Games and the 2019 World Championships. Sydney McLaughlin is already in the world class time of 12 for this distance,

Sydney McLaughlin rejects the suspicion of doping and manipulation.

Her faith makes her strong, she said on Friday.

God gave her a gift and a stage, but it's not about her.

Your race was certainly not perfect, there is always something to improve.

Everything she worked out in training, she put together in the race, didn't think about it too much, but let her body do what it had practiced so often: "That's the best thing you can do." the other distances will also run, whether she gives up the 400-meter hurdles or not when changing, all of these are interesting questions, she said, but: "I'll let my coach decide."