Marileidy Paulino won the Diamond race in Paris, France as she continues to prepare for the 20th World Athletics (13 to 21 September) to take place in Japan this 2025. Her goal is to set a World Record in the 400m at the World Athletics Championships to be held in Tokyo during the final set for 18 September 2025.
Paulino hopes to set the world record at the same track in Tokyo where she won her first silver medal, in the same event in 2021 during the Olympic Games held in Japan. Back then, because of Covid-19, there were no fans in attendance. In September 2025, the stadium should be packed.
It will be no easy feat, as she needs to break the long-standing record set by East German Marita Koch of 47.60 in 1985. That record was set at a time when the East German women were suspected of doping. The closest to the Koch record is the time of 48.14 set by Salwa Naser. Paulino’s best is 48.17 set in the Paris Olympic Games. Back in 1983, Czechoslovak Jarmila Kratochvilova posted 47.99.
At the World Athletics Championships, athletes who break a world record are eligible for a special award of US$100,000. This is in addition to any prize money they might receive for winning a medal or placing in the competition. For example, gold medalists receive US$70,000
Meanwhile, as Paulino moves ahead with her preparation, she has had good news and bad news.
This past week, she won the first place in the Diamond League. Competing in Paris where she had won her Olympic gold medal, Marileidy Paulino did 48.81 (48.17 best in Olympics) to set a season’s best time and a new record for the 400m women’s race in the Diamond League. Race winners make US$10,000 in cash prize and US$30,000 in the finals of the event. Another US$50,000 for winning the most races during the circuit.
This year, as a top athlete, Paulino also received promotional fees to cover travel and transport, accommodation and medical and physio provisions.
Her arch foe Salwa Eid Nasser of Bahrein came in a close 48.85, with Paulino sprinting in the final 50 meters to win the race. Nasser is coached by Dominican Jose Ludwig Rubio.
In the 2024 season, Marileidy Paulino had earned US$80,000 in cash awards by winning five 400m Diamond League races.
Nevertheless, the most profitable races this year in athletics were those of Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track. The series of four races nevertheless did not attract sufficient fan support, and sponsors backed out. The final event, scheduled for Los Angeles, was also impacted by migration protests in that city, that led the organizers to cancel that final race in which Paulino had a good chance of making more than US$100,000 in cash prizes. Paulino had already cashed in big winning the 200 and 400 races in the competitions held in Kingston, Jamaica, Miami and Philadelphia, USA.
Read more:
Grand Slam Track
Diamond League Paris 2025
Noticias Al Instante DR
Memories
Inside the Games
Sports Passion
PBS
Wikipedia Marita Koch
World Athletics
23 June 2025