Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone became the first woman in nearly 40 years to crack 48 seconds in the 400 meters Thursday, achieving 47.78 in a historically fast one-lap race at the world championships.
McLaughlin-Levrone had company. Second-place finisher Marileidy Paulino clocked 47.98 on the rain-slickened track in Tokyo.
The second- and third-fastest times in history trailed only the 47.60 by East Germany’s Marita Koch in 1985 — one of the last remaining vestiges of an Eastern Bloc doping system that was exposed years after it ended.
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