OBSERVATIONS: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone may put one of the oldest world records under pressure...

TOKYO--With no Washington athletes competing Thursday night, here's some observations:

I'm not sure what it would take to finally knock off one of the few standing world records from the 1980s, that being Marita Koch of East Germany's 47.60 from October 6, 1985 in Canberra, Australia.

After Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (Paul Merca photo) came close to it Thursday night, that world record is finally under pressure.

Lost behind McLaughlin-Levrone's win in 47.78 is the fact that Marileidy Paulino also broke 48 seconds for the first time in her career, and Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain ran her second fastest time ever in third place, finishing in 48.19.

McLaughlin-Levrone managed to hold off Paulino, crossing the line in 47.78 to break Paulino's continental record and move to second on the world all-time list. Paulino took silver and was rewarded with a personal best of 47.98, marking the first time that two women have broken 48 seconds in one race. Naser took bronze in 48.19.

Another observation: Look out for Botswana in the men's 4 x 400 relay on Sunday to end the meet.

Botswana’s 21-year-old Collen Kebinatshipi came of age as an individual runner in the driving rain of Tokyo as he floated to victory in a men’s 400m final packed with up-and-coming talents, clocking a national record of 43.53.

On a night when Botswana had three finalists – briefly raising hopes of emulating the US medal sweep at the last World Championships to have been held in Japan, at Osaka in 2007 – they ended up with two medals, as behind Kebinatshipi was Bayapo Ndori in third at 44.20.

The third Botswanan, Lee Eppie was eighth in 44.77.

If you put these three with Letsile Tebogo, the defending Olympic 200 meter champion in the 4 x 400 relay, you could potentially see the USA's dominance in the 4 x 400 relay come under pressure.

The Botswanans earned a silver medal behind the USA at the Paris Olympics, running 2:54.53 to the USA's 2:54.43.

The only question is how hard those four will have to run in the prelims. Hopefully at least two of them will sit out the qualifying round on Saturday night.

Friday night, Washington alum Brian Fay runs in the qualifying heat of the men's 5000 at 8:05 pm local time/4:05 am Pacific, and Gianna Woodruff, fresh off her Panamanian and South American record in the 400 hurdles, goes in her specialty at 9:27 pm local time/5:27 am Pacific.

Complete results of Thursday night's session are available here on the World Athletics Tokyo 2025 microsite.

NOTE: World Athletics contributed to this report.

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