Marileidy Paulino runs a National Record of 48.98seconds to win the 400 meters at the LA Grand Prix

Paulino turned things up another notch in this event by speeding up ahead of Salwa Eid Naser, crossing the line in a comfortable World-Leading and National Record time of 48.98 seconds to prove herself as the athlete to beat this season. 

Salwa Eid Naser was second in a Season’s Best of 50.27 seconds and Lynna Irby-Jackson of the United States was third with a Season’s Best of 50.38 seconds. Sada Williams was fourth with a Season’s Best of 51.00 seconds and Stephenie Ann McPherson was fifth with a Season’s Best of 51.69 seconds. 

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The women’s 400 meters has been a Caribbean event since the 1990s until now. The region has produced athletes such as Bahamians Pauline Davis, Tonique Williams, and Shaunae Miller-Ubio. 

Along with the Jamaican women of Sandie Richards, Lorraine Fenton, Novlene Williams-Mills, Shericka Williams, Stephenie Ann McPherson, and Shericka Jackson, all of whom won World Championship medals in the event. However, In recent times the Caribbean dominance in the 400 meters has improved drastically with the likes of Cuba’s Roxana Gomez, Jamaica’s Candiece McLeod, Barbadian Sada Willimas and Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic have all ran below the 50.00seconds barrier. 

To make it even better, the Caribbean swept the medals in the 400 meters at the 2022 Eugene World Championships with Shaunae Miller-Ubio taking gold, Marileidy Paulino taking silver and Sada Williams taking bronze. On the 2022 Diamond League circuit Marileidy Paulino was the most consistent athlete as she won all of her races including the Diamond League Final in Zurich where she posted a then National Record of 48.99 seconds to claim her first Diamond League trophy. 

That performance gave fans an indication of what Paulino was capable of doing when she is capable of under the right conditions. Marileidy Paulino began her 2023 Diamond League season with 50.51 seconds to win in Doha. 

Since that time, fans were in a frenzy given that Paulino did that time in such a cold condition. It was said that Marileidy Paulino would have faced a stellar field in the 400 meters at the LA Grand Prix. A field that featured her teammate Fiordaliza Cofil, Jamaica’s Stacey Ann Wiliams, and 400-meter hurdles World Record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the United States. But both Williams and McLaughlin-Levrone pulled out of the race. 

This automatically made Marileidy Paulino the clear favorite to run a fast time, though Paulino’s main competition was not there she had competition in that of 2019 Doha World Champion Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain who is returning to the sport after a three-year band due to whereabouts failures. 

It was now time for the ladies to take on the 400 meters, Paulino looked quite comfortable in the blocks and the condition was perfect for something fast. The gun struck and Paulino got the best start and quickly began to separate herself from the field while Naser was there challenging her. Paulino continued to lead and did not fumble as she came off the final curve leading. She was going extremely fast, but no one thought that she would have broken her National Record of 48.99 seconds. 

Marileidy Paulino looks to be the favorite to win gold in the 400 meters at the Budapest World Championship and she does not seem to be slowing down.