Yes, SML is a once-in-a-generation talent and was a prodigy youngster.
However it's worth noting that her 400 flat global age-group records were achieved indoors, where many fastest athletes, Africans and doped East German & Chinese athletes didn't compete or rarely competed.
For 400 outdoors we have U18 list:
1. 50.01 Li JING
3. 50.48 Grit BREUER
4. 50.69 Sanya RICHARDS-ROSS
12. 51.39 Salwa Eid NASER
25. 51.84 Shaunae MILLER
27. 51.87 Sydney MCLAUGHLIN
32. 51.98 Athing MU
and U20:
3. 49.42 Grit BREUER
5. 49.57 Athing MU
7. 49.88 Salwa Eid NASER
8. 49.89 Sanya RICHARDS-ROSS
9. 50.01 Li JING
10. 50.07 Sydney MCLAUGHLIN
11. 50.19 Marita KOCH
15. 50.70 Shaunae MILLER
16. 50.74 Talitha DIGGS
USA's Monique Henderson was a young prodigy, she is 5th / 16th on these lists. "As a young runner, she set the still standing American record for 9-10-year-old girls in the 400 meters" as I'm reading.
I agree with you there that world records are being broken! But for the women's 400m, it is verrrrrry easily influenced by exogenous androgren agents. There wasn't testing for these back then. There is now! And it is not easily fooled by any means. In fact, it is possibly overly sensitive but better that than the other way.
I think SML was in 48-low shape last year. The World Record talk feels a bit much to me. She is really good at hurdling and the heights for women should probably be higher.
I've been saying for a while now that I predict both Naser and Syd will beat the 47.60 WR this year (or latest next year if there are some unforeseen circumstances). They are both prodigies and have PR'ed every year. There's no reason to expect anything different. It's just a matter of who runs faster.
I'm a huge believer in prodigies but I don't know how anyone can believe that 47.60 is within reach. Watch the tape. It's like a female bullet train, especially for the first 350.
Sydney has never demonstrated she's anywhere near fast enough for that type of mark. Nobody is going to stamina below 47.60. She ran a 60 indoors this year and was well short of the projections that were being thrown around, missing the final.
I had to laugh when someone matter of factly posted that Sydney and Kersee claimed she was in 49x shape last year for 400 hurdles. Who cares what they said? Where does that extra 7 tenths come from? It can't be wished.
The 51.46 from Tokyo was a very soft world record. I posted that on many sites during last year's offseason. I expected the women in Tokyo to drop to 51.1 territory and the men hurdlers down to 46.2 range. Instead Warholm ran a generational stunner while Sydney went out in tentative fashion then chopped all over the place on hurdle 8, rising to 16 steps instead of the intended 15. Then she brought it back down to 15 on 9 and 10. You almost never see that. Once the step pattern increases it either stays there or rises some more. The fact that Sydney brought it down to 15 for two consecutive hurdles demonstrates how badly she flubbed hurdle 8.
World records are seldom scrutinized toward blunders so everyone raved. But Sydney and Kersee understood that all she had to do was get more comfortable with the 14 strides, take it out much faster than Tokyo instead of showing Dalilah Muhammad so much respect, clean up hurdle 8, and the record was certain to plunge again. I posted on another site before that race that Sydney could run 50.75 range if she had the Warholm race one year later. Instead she took it to 50.68. That's what prodigies do.
How does the extra chunk happen? She can't drop to 13 steps. The only weak part of her race was the final stretch, where she was a few tenths slower than normal. But that happened logically because she reached hurdle 8 a full second faster than in Tokyo.
Sydney said that after the race she didn't acknowledge the other competitors because she couldn't move. That is deflective nonsense. But somehow she couldn't move but she was capable of 7 tenths lower.
The 50.68 doesn't translate to 47.60 or anything close to that. Sydney with her ideal height and hurdling form loses only 2 seconds or slightly more during transition to hurdles. And finding that extra second requires more sprint speed than she owns.
48.60 is an entirely different dimension than 47.60.
I've been saying for a while now that I predict both Naser and Syd will beat the 47.60 WR this year (or latest next year if there are some unforeseen circumstances). They are both prodigies and have PR'ed every year. There's no reason to expect anything different. It's just a matter of who runs faster.
The 50.68 doesn't translate to 47.60 or anything close to that. Sydney with her ideal height and hurdling form loses only 2 seconds or slightly more during transition to hurdles. And finding that extra second requires more sprint speed than she owns.
48.60 is an entirely different dimension than 47.60.
That's correct. 47.60 is on a different planet. And some guy above thinks that not one but TWO women will break it this year? Ha ha ha ha
It's stunning how many people on a track and field message board actually know very little about track and field. How about we let Sydney focus on trying to break the American record first.
The 50.68 doesn't translate to 47.60 or anything close to that. Sydney with her ideal height and hurdling form loses only 2 seconds or slightly more during transition to hurdles. And finding that extra second requires more sprint speed than she owns.
48.60 is an entirely different dimension than 47.60.
That's correct. 47.60 is on a different planet. And some guy above thinks that not one but TWO women will break it this year? Ha ha ha ha
It's stunning how many people on a track and field message board actually know very little about track and field. How about we let Sydney focus on trying to break the American record first.
48.6 would still be a great 400m time.
This post was edited 32 seconds after it was posted.