In Eugene, Oregon

If one didn’t watch it, then it’s probably going to require a little more energy from them to feel it.

For those, like me, who witnessed the moment as the women’s 400 metres hurdles world record fell under 51 seconds for the first time ever amid an electric atmosphere inside the Hayward Field, American Sydney McLaughlin is a legend already.

The 22-year-old sealed the best moment of the Oregon World Athletics Championships by producing an alien display to clock a new world record time of 50.68 seconds in the early hours of Saturday.

When the screens with timers displayed that time, the stadium went into a latent moment of great awe and even more wonder.

World team champions

It was the fourth time in 13 months that McLaughlin had broken this WR.

That is the moment that stood out most among all achievements for hosts USA who were on Sunday crowned as world team champions with a shield from World Athletics president Sebastian Coe.

USA topped the medal charts with a total 33 medals, 13 of them being gold.

Three countries Ethiopia, Jamaica and Kenya followed with each taking 10 medals in total but Ethiopia had four golds.

Kenya’s medal total declined by one from the Doha 2019 edition in Qatar. They won just two gold medals like Jamaica but the Caribbean nation had seven silver medals, two more than Kenya.

Kenya won five titles in Doha, but only Faith Chepng’etich Kipyegon managed to retain her 1,500m title, while Emmanuel Korir added the world 800m title to his Olympic gold.

Five championship records were set in Eugene but the last 60 hours of the championship were absolutely stunning.

Two nights after McLaughlin’s show of might, she returned to run the final leg and help USA to the women’s 4x400m relay title, the last race at Hayward on Sunday.

Prior, Nigerian Tobi Amusan shocked the stadium to a new WR over the women’s 100m hurdles of 12.12 seconds to win semi-final Heat One and erase the previous mark of 12.20 set by American Kendra Harrison in London, UK on July 22, 2016.

In the final, the African champion Amusan powered to the gold in a faster 12.06 but it wasn’t accepted as a new WR because of the wind aid at 2.5 metres-per-second.

Irrespective, she received a dummy cheque of $100,000 from Coe for the WR feat.

Sunday evening was purely a cracker at Hayward. When McLaughlin led the relay celebrations, Swede Armand Duplantis gave the championship a glorious finish by breaking own pole vault WR to a height of 6.21 metres.

“I getting a little bit tired towards the end. You guys pushed me and I got over the bar,” Duplantis applauded the crowd after his first world title.

This was his fifth WR in his career and the 48th time he’s flown over the six metres.

“Probably not yet, this was awesome and I love being in Eugene. Can’t thank you guys enough,” the Olympic champion added.

Across the entire championship, only two African athletes managed to retain their world titles; Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei in the 10,000m and Chepng’etich.

Meanwhile, powerhouse Kenya did not win any world title over the three long-distance events 5,000m, 10,000m or marathon across both genders for the first time in 23 years. It last happened at Seville (1999).

Team Kenya hopes to make amends which action from this weekend shifts to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.