Sydney McLaughlin, photo by PhotoRun.net
Sydney McLaughlin is one of the most exciting athletes in our sport. Sydney won the NCAA Championships 400m hurdles as a freshman. Then, after the summer, the rumors began about the bidding war on Ms. McLaughlin. At the end of the battle, New Balance came out on top. Paying an impressive amount of money, NB adds to their list of athletes, which includes Jenny Simpson, Emma Coburn and and Gabby Thomas.
Sydney McLaughlin will be running in her NB gear at the NB Indoor GP. To the best of my knowledge, this is her debut as a professional. Do not miss it!
Sydney McLaughlin, photo by PhotoRun.net
Tickets for the event on January 26, which forms part of the IAAF World Indoor Tour, are now on sale at www.nbindoorgrandprix.com or by calling 1-877-849-8722.
McLaughlin, 19, has shown enormous potential in recent seasons. As a high school junior in 2016, she became the youngest US track and field Olympian in 36 years and qualified for the semi-finals of the 400m hurdles at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Following years of breaking a number of age-group world records, McLaughlin continued her meteoric rise at the University of Kentucky, where she won the NCAA title in the 400m hurdles in dominant fashion. The New Jersey native also broke her own world under-20 record, running 52.75, the fastest time in the world in 2018 and a mere 0.41sec off of the world record. Last fall, McLaughlin announced that she would forego her remaining NCAA eligibility and join Team New Balance.
“New Balance has been a constant throughout my entire career and I’m excited to be able to start the next phase of my career at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix,” says McLaughlin. “The support that New Balance has given to high school athletes and the running community, as a whole, is a big part of the reason I want to start my season here and why I’m so excited to be a part of Team New Balance.”
This will be McLaughlin’s second time competing at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix. As a high school senior in 2017, McLaughlin was part of an American relay squad that broke the world indoor record in the distance medley relay. All three of McLaughlin’s squad mates from that record-setting team and now fellow teammates at Team New Balance, 2013 IAAF World Championships 800m silver medalist Brenda Martinez, 2016 Olympic 1500m bronze medalist Jenny Simpson, and Emma Coburn, the reigning world champion in the 3000m steeplechase, are also all returning to compete in the 2019 edition of the meet.
In addition to McLaughlin, previously announced local sprint star Gabby Thomas will also be making her professional debut for Team New Balance at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix. Thomas broke the collegiate indoor record for 200m on her way to winning the 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships for the Harvard Crimson, and went on to finish sixth at the IAAF Diamond League final over 200m in Brussels, Belgium. Thomas ended 2018 ranked sixth in the world at 200m by Track & Field News.
The 2019 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix kicks off at 3:45 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 26 at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center at Roxbury Community College and is the only U.S. stop on the IAAF World Indoor Tour. The series of six international events with stops in Karlsruhe (Germany), Torun (Poland), Madrid (Spain), Birmingham (Great Britain) and Dusseldorf (Germany) awards overall tour winners $20,000 and a guaranteed spot at the next edition of the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, 2020.
Tickets for the event on January 26, which forms part of the IAAF World Indoor Tour, are now on sale at www.nbindoorgrandprix.com or by calling 1-877-849-8722.
Now in its 24th year, the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix has played host to nine world records and 13 American records.
