By Helen Reid
PARIS (Reuters) -Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino surged to victory in the 400 metres on Friday to add Olympic gold to her world title.
Paulino, who won silver in Tokyo, has been unbeaten over the distance at four consecutive athletics meets this year and stormed to a comfortable lead halfway through the lap, finishing in 48.17 seconds.
That broke the Olympic record set in 1996 by France’s Marie-Jose Perec.
Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser took silver and Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek earned the bronze.
Before the Olympics Kaczmarek had the fastest time this year amongst the eight finalists but she could not respond to Paulino’s powerful push on the night. Still, the Pole was delighted with bronze after not making it to the final in Tokyo.
Rhasidat Adeleke finished fourth but still made history as the first woman from Ireland to reach an Olympic 400 final.
(Reporting by Helen Reid, editing by Ed Osmond and Ken Ferris)
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