IN OUR COVERAGE of last year’s World Championships final, we speculated that Marileidy Paulino’s win may have been aided by the absence of Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
In Paris, the Dominican Republic quartermiler proved she needed no assistance at all, thank you very much.
By 150 meters, Paulino had the lead, and by 200 — which she reached in 22.81 — she made up the stagger on Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek. From there, it was almost total dominance. In the final 50 meters, Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser, the 2019 world champion, and Kaczmarek made up a little bit of inconsequential ground. Not enough to stop Paulino’s 48.17 Olympic record — 0.08 faster than Marie-José Pérec’s 48.25 Atlanta 1996 winner.
Naser claimed silver in 48.53 and Kaczmarek bronze in 48.98.
The time moved Paulino to No. 4 all-time behind the venerable (or questionable) 47.60 of East Germany’s Marita Koch, the 47.99 of Czechoslovakia’s Jarmila Kratochvílová and Naser’s 48.14. The mark was the No. 6 all-time performance.
The middle two sections of Paulino’s lap were particularly impressive and where the race was won. She covered the back straight in 10.94 to Naser’s 11.39, and added another 0.14 in the second curve — 11.97 versus 12.11. From there, she closed in 13.39, Naser in 13.30 and Kaczmarek in 13.32.
It is Paulino’s third Olympic medal. In Tokyo she took silvers in the 400 and mixed 4 x 400 (with the DR besting the United States by 0.01).
Behind the medalists, Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke (49.28) took 4th, Amber Anning (49.29) scored a British record in 5th and American Alexis Holmes raced to a 49.77 PR.
“I’m very happy, I still cannot believe that just happened,” said Paulino. “It was either going for the World Record or the Olympic record, and thank God, I achieved the Olympic record.
“I don’t come to compete for the money, but because I love athletics, to help motivate the younger generations and because these achievements are also doors that are being opened for the future generations of Dominican people.”
Said Naser, “I cannot even begin to put into words what this means. I am happy and at the same time I am sad.”
Baton ace Kaczmarek said, “I am very glad for this one as it is from the individual event.” The 26-year-old Pole won…
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