Barbadian Sada Williams shattered Lorna Forde’s 43-year-old national record and narrowly missed out on the women’s 400 metres final after placing third in the semi-finals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games this morning.
Williams posted a new national record time of 50.11 seconds, erasing the 51.04 Forde set back in 1978.
The powerful run saw her at the front of the pack for the first 300 metres, but the veteran experience of eventual winner Stephenie Ann McPherson of Jamaica and six-time Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix, who came second, shone through in the last quarter of the race.
McPherson did a personal best 49.34 seconds to reach the final and Felix a season’s best 49.89. Shaunae Miller-Uibo of The Bahamas is the other Caribbean finalist with a time of 49.60
Williams was ninth overall in the race with six of the eight ahead of her either doing personal bests or season’s bests to get a chance to medal. She was the last Barbadian competitor at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
She is now the holder of both the women’s 200m and 400m records. She set the 200m mark of 22.61 seconds back in 2016. (Nation Sports)
