The tricky part for her seems to be getting her steps right. Which is why she's spent time working on being able to alternate her lead leg for hurdles.
No, that's not what is happening. She IS getting her steps right.
She learned to alternate legs so that she can run 14 steps instead of 15 steps between hurdles, for the first 5 hurdles.
And then in a final, for hurdles 6 - 10 she does 15 steps between hurdles and uses the same lead leg.
In heats, she does 16 steps between hurdles for the last 2 or 3 hurdles, so she can run slower and conserve energy.
Go back and watch her 51.41 world record at .25x speed on YouTube and you'll learn what she is doing.
Actually she is taking 14 steps (alternating legs) all the way through hurdle 7, then she takes 15 steps into hurdles 8, 9, and 10. In her world record you can see she actually has to chop her stride into hurdle 8 in order to do 15 steps and hurdle with her dominant leg...and then takes 15 and hurdles with her dominant leg for the remaining two hurdles as well. I'm sure as she is progressing her and her coach are working on extending the 14 step pattern into hurdles 8 and 9, which would get her back to her dominant leg, and then would allow her to cut down to 15 steps for hurdle 10, again with her dominant leg.
By the looks of her race, it actually seems like she may be able to carry the 14 step pattern through hurdle 9 right now (definitely through hurdle 8). Even if not right now, she's not far off. A little more progress/fitness/speed and she'll be there. Each additional hurdle that she can carry the 14 step pattern through will improve her WR undoubtedly.
As for her 400 flat speed, I'd be interested to see what she could do in the 2 and 4 at the moment. But for her to reach her potential she'd have to focus on both of those events for a decent chunk of time.
The hurdles don’t slow her down much but when she chops that slows it a bit . I would predict a 48.8 -49.0 in a super race with a fast starter outside her
There are too many idiots here, none of you understand the hurdles. Your stride pattern is locked in, the only way to get faster is to take faster steps, not longer steps. Her stride would be much longer in a flat 400. She was very conservative in her most recent record, she was even with the field 200m in. She can run 50.5 in the 400h and sub 48 open 400 with just a year of training exclusively on the flat 400.
Your stride pattern is only locked to a certain extent in the 400h. That is the whole point of hurdlers working to be able to alternate legs; so that they can run the race with an ideal stride and an ideal amount of exertion throughout the race. I will agree that she probably doesn't want to cut down to 13 steps between hurdles at the beginning, because she'd probably have to be sprinting all out to make it between barriers, and then would fade terribly the second half of the race, cutting back to probably 16 steps at some point.
That actually would be pretty interesting though. She might be able to do 13 steps into hurdle 2 or 3, then do 14 steps between hurdles 2/3-7/8 (alternating legs), then cut back to 15 steps for hurdles 7/8-10.
Yeah, that would be pretty sweet, she'd probably have to gain a little bit more fitness to pull that off though. And I'm not sure if the 13 steps at the beginning would be possible or beneficial.
Her 200PR is from 2018 when she was still in high school.
You skipped Salwa Eid Naser, 48.14 in the 400 but Syd has better PB's over 100m and 200m.
She's run 12.65 in the 100 hurdles, which is very fast. That would be tied for 20th in the world right now. Foot speed is not an issue for her.
Sydney's 200 PR of 22.39 is from college, not high school.
Salwa Eid Nasser had PR's of 22.51 and 49.08. Then she decided to use drugs, skipped a bunch of drug tests, then ran 48.14 WHILE she was being investigated, and then got suspended. Good riddance.
Also:
Valerie Brisco-Hooks - 21.81 / 48.83
Chandra Cheeseborough - 21.99 / 49.06
Sanya Richards-Ross - 22.09 / 48.70
Allyson Felix - 21.69 / 49.26
Sydney ran a 400 in college, and she couldn't break 50 seconds. Sydney ran leadoff on a 4x400 as a pro at Mt SAC Relays in 2019, and she couldn't break 50 seconds.
Sydney ran a Diamond League 400 race as a pro in 2019 and she couldn't break 50 seconds. Sydney ran a 400 last year and she couldn't break 50 seconds. Sydney ran lead off on the 4x400 at the Olympics last year, and guess what? Once again, she couldn't break 50 seconds.
Could Sydney run sub 50 at some point this year? Probably.
But sub 48? Absolutely not.
Once again, the only 2 women in history who broke 400 were A) sub 22 200m runners, and B) on a large amount of steroids. Sydney is neither of those things.
And FYI, 100h speed isn't directly related to 100 flat speed, so her 100h PR has nothing to do with it.
Sorry that your "Sydney sub 48 bubble" has been burst.
good summary--with some specific 400m work she could eventually run 48 high, but why do it when you are the world's best at your present event; As you mention, sub 48 is out of the question...
Sydney is most certainly capable of running 48.5-49.0 open right now over 400m. She's about to break sub 51 in 400h at worlds.
With some proper speed training she can dip under 48.5. 47.6 is a stretch but it will be fun watching her go for it.
A few stats for helpful context....
- 4 years ago when she was running almost 1.5-2 seconds slower over 400h, she ran 50.07 in the open 400m in MARCH as a Freshman at Kentucky to open her outdoor collegiate season. She ran this in the pouring ran, btw.
- In the same meet, she ran 22.39 over 200m (not a bad double)
- She ran 50.38 indoor that same year as a freshman at Kentucky
- She ran 2 sub 50.0 splits FAT in HS
- She ran 48.8 split on the 4x4 at 2019 worlds
- She was the lead-off lead at Tokyo which is why she didn't dip below (she looked way too comfortable and didn't go out hard enough as she clearly needs more reps in the event)
I strongly believe she has 50.6-8 400h potential this year. Once she gets that 400h record in a place that won't be touched for a few decades, she will move over to the open 400. Throw in some speed training with Bobby over 100 and 200, she will be ready to challenge the 400m WR.
If she makes the pivot this summer after Eugene to the open 400, I bet we see 48.9-49.1 open and 21.7-9 over 200m
Sydney is most certainly capable of running 48.5-49.0 open right now over 400m. She's about to break sub 51 in 400h at worlds.
With some proper speed training she can dip under 48.5. 47.6 is a stretch but it will be fun watching her go for it.
A few stats for helpful context....
- 4 years ago when she was running almost 1.5-2 seconds slower over 400h, she ran 50.07 in the open 400m in MARCH as a Freshman at Kentucky to open her outdoor collegiate season. She ran this in the pouring ran, btw.
- In the same meet, she ran 22.39 over 200m (not a bad double)
- She ran 50.38 indoor that same year as a freshman at Kentucky
- She ran 2 sub 50.0 splits FAT in HS
- She ran 48.8 split on the 4x4 at 2019 worlds
- She was the lead-off lead at Tokyo which is why she didn't dip below (she looked way too comfortable and didn't go out hard enough as she clearly needs more reps in the event)
I strongly believe she has 50.6-8 400h potential this year. Once she gets that 400h record in a place that won't be touched for a few decades, she will move over to the open 400. Throw in some speed training with Bobby over 100 and 200, she will be ready to challenge the 400m WR.
If she makes the pivot this summer after Eugene to the open 400, I bet we see 48.9-49.1 open and 21.7-9 over 200m
,.....
I agree Sydney most definitely can run sub 50 this year in the open 400m. What alot of poster are forgetting she spent most of her base and early season training targeting 100h and 400h. She hasn't focused on the flat 400m ever.
Her coach says she is going for the world outdoor 400m record meaning full-time focus. The different in training for flat 400m compared to 100h)400h is significant. Don't know if she can get the world record but an American Record at 400m next year would not surprise me!
McLaughlin easily has a sub-50 in her at any time considering she is 1.3 seconds ahead of Antyukh in the 400H and Antyukh ran sub-50 three times and Little has gone 49.91 and is a full second behind at 400H. To get down to 47.60 is a long way from sub-50, however. What makes her so dominant is her ability to hurdle so cleanly. Just because Edwin Moses won over 100 straight 400H races did not make him a WR holder in the open 400. He would have been very competitive but the WR was out of reach. Also, consider that we are talking about East Germany Marita Koch, who could probably swallow more burritos than Joey Chestnut.
There are too many idiots here, none of you understand the hurdles. Your stride pattern is locked in, the only way to get faster is to take faster steps, not longer steps. Her stride would be much longer in a flat 400. She was very conservative in her most recent record, she was even with the field 200m in. She can run 50.5 in the 400h and sub 48 open 400 with just a year of training exclusively on the flat 400.
The point is that she’s 22 and still improving. She hasn’t reached her athletic peak, probably not for a few more years. These people who think she couldn’t run low 48 or even break 48 in the 400 (or break the world record) with proper focus on the event are clueless.