Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic stormed to victory in the Olympic women’s 400m on Friday in a new Games record time.
Paulino, the reigning world champion, surged home in 48.17sec with Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser taking silver in 48.53sec and Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek bronze in 48.98sec.
The 27-year-old Paulino’s time bettered the previous Olympic record of 48.25sec set by France’s Marie-Jose Perec at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
The Dominican was always in control after blasting out of the blocks, with only 2019 world champion Naser offering resistance.
But Paulino led coming off the final bend and despite Naser’s best efforts, held a comfortable lead to take gold.
It was the latest confirmation of Paulino’s dominance of the event following a victory at last year’s World Championship in Budapest.
