Is there a more bewildering all-time list in track and field than the women’s 400 metres? Because I’m just after looking at it again, and there are some performances in there that simply beggar belief.
Still sitting pretty at number one is Marita Koch of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). Her world record of 47.60 seconds is about to turn 40, still out on its own, given no woman has broken 48 seconds in the 40 years since.
Running at the 1985 World Cup in Canberra, drawn in lane two and passing halfway in a mind-blowing 22.4, Koch bettered the 47.99 that the former Czechoslovakian Jarmila Kratochvilova clocked to win the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki, still the only other women’s sub-48 in history.
So Kratochvilova’s 47.99 sits at number two, although she does still hold the 800m world record with her 1:53.28, set in 1983 – the longest-standing world record in the books, men or women.
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In all, Koch broke 30 world records, 16 outdoors and 14 indoors, all while representing the GDR during the time of their state-sponsored and systematic doping. While Koch never failed a doping test, evidence of that GDR steroid regime has been repeatedly presented beyond any reasonable doubt.
Kratochvilova’s times are also widely considered to be the result of her artificially high testosterone levels, her name appearing in old Czech sporting files indicating as much.
There isn’t much more to be said about those times which wouldn’t be removed for legal reasons. A few more performances inside the top 20 are equally suspect. Olga Bryzgina of the former USSR ran 48.27, also in Canberra in 1985, and sits sixth on the all-time list. Another Czech woman, Tatana Kocembova, ran 48.59 in 1983, just behind Kratochvilova, still the ninth fastest in history.
Then you look at third on the all-time list, the 48.14 seconds which Salwa Eid Naser from Bahrain ran to win the 2019 World Championships in Doha. In 2021, Naser was banned for two years for an anti-doping violation, missing three tests within a 12-month period.
Two weeks after the Paris Olympics last summer, where Naser finished second in the 400m, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of World Athletics confirmed that a notice of charge against the Bahrain Athletics Association for “serious anti-doping rule violations” had been issued just eight months before the Olympics began.
Moving on to more credible times, or the more recent era anyway, many of which I have witnessed in person. Sitting in fourth on the all-time list is the 48.17 which Marileidy Paulino from the Dominican Republic ran to win the gold medal in Paris, in the process breaking the Olympic record of 48.25 set by Marie-José Perec of France in 1996. Paulino was already a two-time world champion before Paris, and at age 28, is unquestionably in her running prime.
Then you look at Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone from the US, sitting in 12th on the all-time list with her 48.74, set two years ago. At age 25, McLaughlin-Levrone has been obliterating (and yes, the word is justified) every US and world age-group record since she was 13 – in the 400m hurdles. The 400m flat isn’t even her specialist event, and yet she’s arguably the most capable of finally breaking the 47.60 set by Koch in 1985.
There may be evidence of that in Saturday night’s Pre Classic. The ninth stop on the Diamond League circuit, staged at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, this is the same track where McLaughlin-Levrone broke four of her six world records in the 400m hurdles, before breaking it again to run 50.37 when winning Olympic gold in Paris.
The Pre Classic turns 50 this year – first staged in June 1975, a week after Oregon’s distance running hero Steve Prefontaine was killed in a car crash, crashing his MG into a roadside ditch not far from Hayward Field. Prefontaine was also the first athlete to be sponsored by Nike, which is pouring mega-bucks into the Pre Classic this year.
Although the women’s 400m in Eugene is not part of the Diamond League programme, McLaughlin-Levrone won’t be holding anything back, given her typically sparse racing schedule. The Pre Classic is also where Rhasidat Adeleke will look to get her season back on track, after her opening Diamond League appearances in the 400m last month, in Oslo and then Stockholm, were well under par.
In both races, Adeleke appeared off-form, fading to sixth in the homestretch in Stockholm, running 50.48. She had run 50.42 to finish fourth in Oslo three nights before. From the outset of this particularly long season, with the World Championships in Tokyo still over two months away, Adeleke has been talking about timing things differently. She’ll want to be running faster this time.
Looking again at that all-time 400m list, Adeleke’s Irish record of 49.07, clocked at age 21 when finishing second in the European Championships last summer, ranks her equal 17th – an undeniable mark, and reminder if needed, of her exceptional talent. Most of the other top-20 times were set by athletes well into their 20s.
Saturday night’s line-up also includes newcomer Bella Whittaker from the US, who won in Oslo and Stockholm, and Adeleke will want to run closer to 50 seconds, even if Tokyo is still some distance off. Then it’s straight on to Monaco next Friday, where Adeleke scored her first Diamond League victory last year, running 49.17 seconds, only this time she’ll have Paulino for company.
The Pre Classic is truly star-studded, with 17 Olympic champions, and full podium rematches in five events, including the women’s 1,500m. In a change to the original schedule, that race is now the meeting climax, Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon out to break her own world record of 3:49.04.
Sarah Healy also goes again, two weeks after finishing second in the Paris Diamond League in a lifetime best of 3:57.15, having won in Rome earlier in the month. Perhaps some athletes are timing things differently, aiming to reach a peak in Tokyo in September, but on the same track where Prefontaine was always known to give his absolute best, there will be no hiding form at the Pre Classic.
Live on Virgin Media Three, Saturday 9-11pm
