Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won an invitational flat 400m at the Diamond League Final, running faster than the Olympic gold medalist in the event clocked minutes later.
McLaughlin-Levrone, the two-time Olympic champion and world record holder in the 400m hurdles, won her race in 49.11 seconds in mid-50-degree weather in Brussels.
About 10 minutes later, Olympic 400m champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic ran 49.45 to win the Diamond League Final 400m.
McLaughlin-Levrone was not eligible to run the Diamond League Final 400m because she did not run any regular season Diamond League meets.
DIAMOND LEAGUE FINAL: Full Results
She said after Friday’s race that she is sure she will run “some” flat 400m races in 2025.
While McLaughlin-Levrone has primarily raced the hurdles, she did win the 2023 U.S. title in the flat 400m in the world’s best time that year (48.74).
She planned to race the flat 400m and not the 400m hurdles at the 2023 World Championships but withdrew before the meet with a small PCL tear in her left knee.
Paulino remains the world’s fastest woman in the 400m in 2024 with her time of 48.17 from the Paris Games.
McLaughlin-Levrone is scheduled to run an invitational 200m at the Diamond League Final on Saturday (1:53 p.m. ET, Peacock). Her personal best is 22.07, making her the joint-eighth-fastest woman this year.
Also Friday, Olympic gold medalist Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia won the women’s 100m in 10.88 seconds.
Sha’Carri Richardson, the Olympic silver medalist, was eighth in 11.23. Richardson remains the world’s fastest woman this year courtesy of her 10.71 at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
In the men’s 1500m, Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway prevailed in 3:30.37.
Paris Olympic gold medalist Cole Hocker was third (3:30.94). Paris Olympic bronze medalist Yared Nuguse was in second place when he was clipped from behind by Kenyan Timothy Cheruiyot just after the start of the last lap. Nuguse ended up sixth.
Two-time Olympic champion Valarie Allman won a fourth consecutive Diamond League season title in the discus. She threw 68.47 meters.
Jamaican Ackeem Blake took the men’s 100m in 9.93 seconds, beating American Christian Coleman by seven hundredths. Noah Lyles, the reigning Olympic and world champion, shut down his season after the Paris Games.
Swede Mondo Duplantis cleared 6.11 meters to win the pole vault. If that was his last competition of 2024, he is the first male pole vaulter to win Olympic gold and go undefeated in the same season in at least 60 years, according to Tilastopaja.
Kenyan Amos Serem became the first man to defeat Moroccan Soufiane El Bakkali in a 3000m steeplechase since September 2021.