PHILADELPHIA — Olympic 400m hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin will open her season at the 2022 Penn Relays this weekend when she lines up in the women’s 100m hurdles.
McLaughlin, who smashed the 400m hurdles world record on her way to winning the gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games, headlines the list of starters down to contest the Olympic Development women’s 100m hurdles Elite race here on Saturday (30).
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The American was initially set to open her campaign as part of a team that attempted and broke the Distance Medley Relay world best at the Night At The TRACK, presented by New Balance meeting earlier this month, but a minor hamstring injury forced her to withdraw from the event.
The 22-year-old has since returned to training and is feeling confident about delivering a solid performance to get her 2022 campaign off and running.
Last season McLaughlin ran her five-fastest times for the 100m hurdles, including her personal best to 12.65 seconds, which helped propelled her to the top of the all-time list in the 400m hurdles after clocking 51.46 secs in Tokyo to break the world record in that event.
Among the athletes lining up to take on the American at the 2022 Penn Relays are a pair of Jamaicans, Shermaine Williams and Amoi Brown who have already gotten their season underway.
Williams has so far ran five 100m hurdles this season and has a best time of 13.22 secs this term, while her PB sits at 12.78 secs.
Brown, in the meantime, has made two outdoor appearance thus far and has a year best of 13.33 secs.
The field also includes USA’s Evonne Britton, British Islands’ Deya Erickson, and Canadian Mariam Abdul-Rashid.
The 2022 Penn Relays will start on Thursday, 28 April and run through Saturday, 30 April, and host by the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
