By AA Correspondent
Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic took the women’s 400 metres gold in an Area record and Olympic record of 48.17s at the Stade de France on the penultimate day of track action in the Olympic Games on Friday (Aug 9).
In doing so, the 27-year-old, a silver medallist in the event at the Tokyo Games three years ago, also jumped into the world lead, till Friday occupied by Jamaican Nickisha Pryce at 48.57s. Pryce could not cross the semi-finals, clocking 50.77s for the fourth place. Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek, one of the favourites for a medal, took the bronze in 48.98s, the first time the top three came under 49.0s in an Olympics. The entire field clocked sub-50, also for the first time.
Asia now has two gold, two silver and a bronze medal. In the last two editions, the continent had four gold medals each.
The bronze in a close competition in shot put was won by Chinese woman Song Jiayuan with a throw of 19.72m that saw her finishing two rungs above her team-mate and legend Gong Lijiao (19.27m). The Chinese veteran19.86m 35, in her last Olympics after having competed in five editions successively since the one at home in2008, has three medals including the gold from the last Games.
Coming into these Games Gong Lijiao was not in any great touch but had still managed a season best of 20.0m at Hengelo in July, raising hopes that she may after all, bow out with at least a medal.
German Yemisi Ogunliye won the shot-put gold on her last throw which measured 20.00m her best outdoors. Her best happened to be 19.53m at Schonebeck, Germany, this year. She was the World indoor silver medallist as well this year. New Zealand’s Maddison Wesche won the silver at 19.86m, her first major achievement.
The silver winner of the last Games, Raven Saunders of the US ended up seventh this time with 18.62m while the season leader (20.68m), Sarah Mitton of Canada finished 12th and last with just 17.48m.
Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium won a record third Olympic heptathlon title in what turned out to be a close contest with Britain’s world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson. Eventually, a mere 36 points separated the two at the end of the gruelling two-day event, with the 800m, the last event, being hotly contested.
Jordan Alejandro Diaz of Spain won the triple jump gold, edging Olympic champion Pedro Pablo Pichardo of Portugal by a mere two centimetres in a competition where the top-six crossed 17.40m. In an all-Cuban-origin triple jumpers figuring among the medal winners, Andy Diaz Hernandez of Italy, finished with the bronze with 17.64m, his best for the season.
Beatrice Chebet of Kenya completed a grand 5000-10,00m double winning the longer distance title in 30:43.25, just one-tenth of a second ahead of the fast-finishing Italian Nadia Battocletti. In the process, the woman who took the distance double in Tokyo, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, had to be satisfied with the bronze, just as she had to in the shorter distance.
After having pulled out from the 1500m earlier, Hassan’s intentions to compete in Sunday’s marathon, were unclear. She had previously entered in four events. Her favourite strategy of hanging around at the end of the pack, once again did not success on Friday as the top three came storming through the finishing straight.
Chebet herself had bided her time in typical long-distance tactics early on by being around the fifth to seventh places, moving up decisively to third with 300 metres to go and still pushing up further with the penultimate bend approaching. She was unmatched over the last 100 metres.
Margaret Chelimo of Kenya who did some front-running past the half-way mark eventually settled for the fourth place while another Kenyan, Lilian Rengeruk Kasait was fifth.
Salwa Naser who had served a two-year suspension for “whereabouts violations” of the anti-doping rules in 2021-2023, tried to match the pace set by Paulino from about 150 metres in the 400m but she could not succeed. Having covered the first 200m in 22.81s, Paulino raced through the final stretch in great fashion, confident that the gold was her’s.
Naser was quoted as saying: “I cannot even begin to put into words what this means. I am happy and at the same time I am sad.” It was Bahrain’s second medal in Paris, behind the gold won by Winfred Yavi in the 3000m steeplechase.
Paulino was happy she had the gold in an Olympic record. “For me this gold medal means a lot. It was the medal that I needed to complete an Olympic cycle and it is a medal that my country needed,” she said.
After having played second fiddle to world-record holder Karsten Warholm of Norway at the 2019 World championships in Doha and the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, Rai Benjamin was not going to give any room for anyone else to push him off the gold-medal bracket. He was smooth over the hurdles, paced himself to a nicety over the straight and negotiated the last two hurdles without any hesitancy. His 46.46s was a world lead.
Warholm, world and Olympic champion had to be satisfied with the silver in 47.06s. As he finished, he thumped the track in disappointment as though telling himself “How could I let this one slip”.
Dos Santos, the Brazilian who won the World title in 2022, finished third. He had come through the semifinals with some problems but was able to challenge the other two close contenders up to the home bend. He clocked 47.26s.
“It feels great, to be honest,” said Benjamin. “I finally got it. This gold has eluded me for so long.” said he. “I don’t think I ever doubted it, it was more about staying patient and keep showing up every day,” he added.
“I know my last 200 is lethal and I know that I can outrun anyone at that point in the race. I just relied on that, trusted what I’ve done all season,” the American said.
“Rai did a great job,” said Warholm. Whoever takes it is the better man on the day. In my head, I deserved it as well”.
There was drama in the men’s 4x100m relay as the US, firm favourites, was disqualified for violating the zone in the exchange between Christian Coleman and Kenny Bednarek on the backstraight. Canada capitalised on that to win the gold in a season best 37.50s. South Africa and Britain came behind. Japan took the fifth spot while the Chinese men were seventh in 37.78s and 38.06s respectively.
In the women’s sprint relay final, the US team lived up to expectations and won in a season best 41. 78s.Britain and Germany took silver and bronze.
In the 4x400m heats on Friday, Japan qualified for the final clocking a national record of 2:59.48 to finish fourth overall. The team comprised Yuki Nakajima, Kaito Kawabata, Fuga Sato and Kentaro Sato.
India could not move into the final despite great expectations back home as the quartet of Muhammed Anas, Muhammad Ajmal, Amoj Jacob and Rajesh Ramesh finished fifth in the heat and tenth overall in 3:00.58, a season best for the team that had made the final of the last World championships.
