At age 19, Eid Naser (third from the right in red) took silver in the 400 m at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics in London.(Photo by Erik van Leeuwen)
The trio of Marileidy Paulino, Salwa Eid Naser and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone are set to lit the women’s 400m race on fire at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
Dominican Marileidy is the reigning world champion and ran a lifetime best of 48.17 to win the Olympic gold in Paris title last year.
That mark is fourth on the world all-time list, just 0.03 and one place behind her biggest threat Salwa. Before this year, the Bahraini broken 49 seconds on just two occasions, but this year she has bettered that mark four times, first with early season runs of 48.94 and 48.67, the latter a world lead, and more recently with a 48.85 runner-up finish in Paris and a 48.70 victory at the Diamond League Final in Zurich.
Marileidy heads to Tokyo with a 3-2 winning record over Salwa, formerly from Nigeria, this season, but the latter beat Marileidy by more than half a second to claim a significant psychological advantage.
Hurdles specialist McLaughlin-Levrone is focusing on the 400m flat in Tokyo. The 26-year-old, who holds the world record for 400m hurdles at 50.37, won the US title in 48.90 earlier this year, just 0.16 shy of her PB. She may need to improve on the US record of 48.70 if she is to beat Marileidy and Salwa in Tokyo.
McLaughlin-Levrone is joined on the US team by Aliyah Butler and Isabella Whittaker. Butler, 21, ran a personal best of 49.09 at the Monaco Diamond League meeting to finish just 0.03 behind Paulino.
Whittaker, meanwhile, became the second-fastest woman of all time indoors with her 49.24 clocking earlier this year. She went on to set an outdoor PB of 49.58 to win at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo.
Henriette Jaeger finished a close second in that race, clocking a Norwegian record of 49.62. The world indoor bronze medallist went on to reduce that to 49.49 with her third-place finish at the Diamond League Final.
Others to keep an eye on include world indoor champion Amber Anning, Olympic bronze medallist Natalia Bukowiecka, the much-improved Martina Weil of Chile, and Jamaican duo Nickisha Pryce and Dejanea Oakley.
With Olympic champion Quincy Hall, ruled out because of a hamstring injury, in the men’s 400m in Tokyo, his American compatriot Jacory Patterson will be the hoping to pull off one of the feel-good stories of these upcoming championships.
A college track star, Patterson failed to earn himself a lucrative shoe contract when he entered the pro ranks so last summer took a job with delivery company UPS to help fund his track and field career.
The job was to pack boxes into the back of trucks from 10.45pm until 5am back in his home town of Columbia in South Carolina. His pattern would then follow three hours of sleep before heading to training from 8.30am until the early afternoon followed by a nap and then back to work.
Despite the setbacks, he has shone and is one of only three men this year to have broken 44 seconds, clocking a PB of 43.85.
Only South African Zakithi Nene has run faster in 2025. The former economics student’s 43.76 moved him to 16th on the world all-time list as he took half a second off his own PB set earlier in the year. He has comfortably been the revelation for the event this season having not even made the final in Paris a year ago.
Britain’s Matt Hudson-Smith has been a silver medallist at the past two global championships and would dearly love to go one better. His best for the season of 44.10 puts him fourth on this year’s world list, but he was pipped to the Diamond League win in London by compatriot Charlie Dobson, who clocked a 44.14 PB.
Both should challenge in Japan but there are plenty others in the mix, including potentially defending champion Antonio Watson, who made the Jamaican team for this championships having missed out on selection for the Olympics.
Another likely to challenge is 2022 world indoor champion Jareem Richards of Trinidad & Tobago, who also has a best this year of 44.14.
US duo Khaleb McRae, the other sub-44 man in the field this season, and world indoor champion Chris Bailey will hope to push their medal causes at the business end of these championships as will Zambia’s Muzala Samukonga, the Olympic bronze medallist.
Kirani James, winner of the world title back in 2011 while still a teenager, has reached the final of every global championships he has contested. He produced a 43.78 clocking, just 0.04 shy of his lifetime best, in the Olympic semifinal last year, and heads to Tokyo with a season’s best of 44.48.
