Pouring rain and gusting winds do not make for fast times but then Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is no normal athlete.
In appalling conditions at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, the world’s greatest 400m hurdler added a first global flat title to her name in the fastest 400m race in history, almost taking down an unbreakable record.
Only twice before had a woman ever broken the 48-second barrier and both of those runs came in the 1980s era of state-sponsored doping.
That group of two doubled as McLaughlin-Levrone edged out Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino, crossing the line in 47.80 seconds, exactly two tenths off Marita Koch’s world record that until recently, had been deemed the most unbreakable in the sport.
Given the conditions, this will go down as one of the greatest performances over any distance, in one of the greatest races.
Salwa Eid Naser, who won bronze in 48.19s, would have won gold in every other World Championships in history bar her own victory six years ago in Doha, while Paulino’s 47.98s puts her third all time. Three of the nine fastest times in history came in one race.
Paulino came into the final as third favourite of the big three, but even in lane nine – admittedly the least exposed to the conditions – she pushed the American to the limit.
McLaughlin-Levrone is not used to close races but showed that she can finish under pressure as she finally put the race to bed down the closing straight.
Great Britain’s Amber Anning, unfortunately sandwiched between McLaughlin-Levrone and Naser, finished a gallant fifth in a season’s best time but more than a second off the medals.
Having dominated the 400m hurdles to an outrageous extent, with back-to-back Olympic titles and a world record more than half a second better than anyone else, the 26-year-old from New Jersey made the decision to test the flat.
It was never really a gamble and now appears to be a matter of when not if she will take down Koch’s mark.
That record will at least turn 40 years old, having been set back in October 1985, but its days are surely numbered.
Koch’s performances have come under scrutiny following revelations of a state-sponsored doping programme in East Germany, but she denies any involvement.
In 2014, Koch told the BBC: “I have a clear conscience. I can only repeat myself… I never tested positive; I never did anything which I should not have done at that time.”
Her record sits alongside Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 100m and 200m marks, along with Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 800m best, as four world records on the track that have all lasted since the 1980s, wheareas improved technology, training techniques and human evolution have ensured the record in most other events has steadily been bettered.
European Athletics proposed that all world records set before 2005 be rewritten due to World Athletics, then the IAAF, not storing blood and urine samples before that time.
The proposal did not go through, but McLaughlin-Levrone could now erase one of those records, while Keely Hodgkinson has spoken of her confidence of taking down Kratochvilova.
Coached by Bob Kersee, the only knock against McLaughlin-Levrone previously was that she did not race often.
When she does, history is guaranteed and, on a night when conditions should have made it impossible, she delivered again.
Follow all the action from the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 on BBC
