Tokyo 2020: Rojas, Warholm and McLaughlin, the latest record breakers are redefining sport in their own way

Rojas starts it

An Olympic record of 15.41M in the first round was a clear marker of Rojas’s intent. She went beyond 15M again in the fourth round, leaping 15.25M, and took to the runway one last time in the final round, her victory by that point guaranteed.

With the pressure off and the gold medal secured, Rojas achieved the jump of her life, breaking the sand at 15.67M smashing the world record, adding 17 centimetres to the previous record set at the 1995 World Championships by Ukraine’s Inessa Kravets.

Talk of Tokyo 2020

For decades to come, the aficionados will talk of Tokyo 2020 400M hurdles finals as the event that changed everything we thought we knew about the limits of human performance.

First there was the men’s race and that magnificent, mind-altering moment when Warholm crossed the finish line and the digits on the clock, somehow, read 45.95sec.

Warholm’s giant-leap

The Norwegians time was 0.76sec faster than anyone had ever run, and 0.84sec faster than anyone not named Warholm.

Not so much one small step for man as one giant leap towards a new era in the event they call the man-killer.

McLaughlin masterclass

The adrenaline had barely stopped flowing for athletics fans when, the very next morning, along came a trio of generational talents for the women’s 400M hurdles final.

McLaughlin led them home in 51.46, 0.44sec quicker than the world record, and 0.70sec quicker than anyone not named McLaughlin had ever run.