Paris, Aug 9 (IANS): Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone cemented her status as one of the sport’s all-time greats by shattering her world record in the 400m hurdles final at the Paris Olympics.

The American superstar ran a blisteringly fast race to win the women’s 400m hurdles gold medal in a new world record time of 50.37 seconds.

It marked the fifth time the American had lowered her own world record, and she became the first woman to go back-to-back at the Olympics in the event since it made its debut at Los Angeles 1984.

"Grateful to God for this opportunity, grateful to be celebrating my 25th birthday like this. It was yesterday, just a super opportunity, you can’t even imagine,” said McLaughlin-Levrone.

“It’s amazing to see our sport continue to grow, for people to want to watch the 400m hurdles. I knew it was going to be a tough race. An amazing competition all the way round," McLaughlin-Levrone quoted by World Athletics.

Her Dutch rival Femke Bol, who had steered her nation to gold in the mixed 4x400m six days earlier, clocked 52.15 for a second successive Olympic bronze after being overtaken in the closing stages by McLaughlin-Levrone’s teammate Anna Cockrell, who claimed silver clocking a personal best of 51.87 that moved her to fourth on the world all-time list.