Santiago 2023 - Dominican Republic's Marileidy Paulino cruises to gold in women's 200m at the Pan Am Games
The 400m world champion takes her first individual Pan Am title
Athletics
The Dominican Republic's Marileidy Paulino, the reigning World champion in the 400m, sprinted to an easy gold medal win Thursday (2 November) in the women's 200m final at the Pan American Games Santiago 2023 inside the Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos.
As the field came around the turn, Paulino was fighting for the lead with Ecuador's Gabriela Suarez, running next to her. But as the two hit the straight away, it was all Paulino, who clocked in at 22.74, well ahead of the 23.04 she ran in Wednesday's semi-final round.
Silver went to 100m Pan Am champ Yunisleidy Garcia of Cuba (23.33) with Brazi's Ana de Jesus (BRA) rounding out the podium, running 23.52 for bronze.
In the end, Suarez fell away and finished fourth at 23.67.
The race got off to an auspicious start with an obvious false start coming from Aimara Nazareno of Ecuador, who was disqualified.
Paulino is a history-making figure for her nation, becoming the first Dominican woman to win an athletics Olympic medal when she took silver in the 400m at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. She added a second silver in the mixed 4x400m relay at those Games.
Earlier this year, she won the 400m world title at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
Her medal in Thursday night's final is her first individual accolade at the Pan American Games. Earlier in Santiago, she was part of the mixed 4x400m relay team that struck gold.