US track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran the second fastest time ever to win gold in the women's 400 metres at the world championships in Tokyo on Thursday.

The 26-year-old American clocked 47.78sec on a rain-slicked track to smash the previous championship record of 47.99sec set by Jarmila Kratochvilova of then-Czechoslovakia in 1983.

Defending champion and Olympic gold medallist Marileidy Paulino took silver in a Dominican Republic record of 47.98sec, with Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser claiming bronze in 48.19sec.

Having smashed the US record in the semi-final, McLaughlin-Levrone looked set to unleash something big in the final, perhaps even threatening Marita Koch's 40-year-old world record of 47.60sec.

And so it proved, the two-time 400m hurdles Olympic champion and world record hol

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