the 50-second barrier?

Or is that even all that surprising?

With her second world record in less than a month, another night at Hayward Field draped in red, white and blue, became the point where nothing seems impossible for McLaughlin.

“Sydney McLaughlin is taking her event to a place where nobody ever thought it would go,” said Ato Boldon, a world champion sprinter, “and it’s still going.”

“It’s unreal,” McLaughlin said.

Or is it?

It was a performance worthy of the sport’s ultimate compliment — Beamonesque — if McLaughlin hasn’t continued to indicate she is just getting started,

“The time is absolutely amazing and the sport is getting faster and faster,” McLaughlin said. “Just figuring out what barriers can be broken. I’m only going to get faster from here.”

Friday night in Tracktown U.S.A. also marked another young American star, former USC NCAA champion Michael Norman, fulfilling the promise of his youth.

Norman, the 24-year-old Vista Murrieta High standout, held off Grenada’s Kirani James, the former Olympic and World champion, down the homestretch in the 400, erasing the disappointments of the 2019 Worlds in Doha and the Tokyo Olympics.

Thirty meters into the 2019 Worlds semifinal, Norman felt the hamstring give and decided not to push it, finishing last in the race and not advancing to the final.

Last summer he was fifth in the Olympic 400 final.

Norman came off the final turn virtually even with James.

“I knew it was always going to be a battle with Michael,” James said. “I thought I had a good advantage to beat him to see him in front of me. But catching him, it is never going to be easy.”

When Norman opened a slight lead at the top of the home stretch, James tried to go with him. But with 50 meters remaining, James’ form began to break down and Norman stretched the gap to the finish, running 44.29. James was second in 44.48 with Great Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith taking the bronze in 44.66.

Norman’s victory completed a U.S. sweep of the men’s sprint titles at Oregon ‘22.

“It is an amazing feeling for sure,” Norman said. “Just to come out here, on let’ s say a home track and pull out with a gold individual medal. It is going to be a memorable one. I want to remember what took me here and I am just thankful to everybody who supported me throughout the whole career. without those people, I would not be where I am right now. So I really appreciate all those people.

“It took a lot of work to get where I was — obviously last year was not a good year for myself so I had to do a lot of hard work just to kind of get back to where I was. This moment here is going to be remembered forever so I wanted to make sure that all the people who are the closest to me who understood what my objective was this year will never try to get me out of my path of success and will never doubt myself. It will take some time to reflect what it means to be a champion and to understand what it takes to be better.”

The question going into the women’s 400 hurdles final wasn’t whether McLaughlin would win or whether she would lower the world record, but only by how much?

“We knew warming up that it was going to be one of those days,” McLaughlin said referring to her coach Bobby Kersee. “We were ready and tried and go out there and execute.”

By the first hurdle McLaughlin, running in Lane 5, had already made up the stagger on Dalilah Muhammad, the 2016 Olympic and 2019 World champion, running in Lane 6. From there the rest of the race was nothing more than a time trial for McLaughlin, race between her and her world record of 51.41 set at the U.S. Championships June 25, and the 51 second barrier.

“It was crazy,” said Netherland’s Femke Bol, who was second in 52.27. Muhammad was third in 53.13, nearly 2.5 seconds, an eternity in the event, behind McLaughlin.

“She was so far in front at the end so I was always doubting if I really had a good race because it felt very good,” Bol continued. “And then I saw the sign and I was like: Wow. ‘This is just amazing.’ And it means a lot that she also broke the 51 second barrier. Yes, it is unbelievable but it is amazing to be a part of it and to come out second in such a race.”

Coming off the last hurdle, McLaughlin, like everyone else at Hayward seemed to sneak a peek at the trackside clock.

“I knew coming home that if I just kept my cadence and stayed on my stride pattern, we could do it and it happened,” she said. “It’s very special to push boundaries for myself,”

So what boundary is next?

50 seconds?

“After that race I think 49 seconds is possible,” Muhammad said before pausing. “For Sydney.”

Yula Pechonkina of Russia’s 2003 world record of 52.34 stood until Muhammad lowered it to 52.20 at the 2019 U.S. Championships. Muhammad took the world record down to 52.16 at the World Championships in Doha later that season.

Since June 2021, McLaughlin has broke the world record four times, running 51.90 at the U.S. Olympic Trials last summer, 51.46 to win the Tokyo Olympics, 51.46 last month. With Friday’s victory, she has knocked 1.66 of a world record that stood for 16 years. And with the exception of last summer’s Olympic final when Muhammad led until the last hurdle, McLaughlin has not been pushed in her world record runs.