Dominican sprinter Marileidy Paulino qualified on Tuesday, 16 September (Dominican time) for the 400-meter final at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, clocking a time of 49.82 seconds. The time was fast enough to earn her second place in her qualifying heat, right behind Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek, who finished in 49.67 seconds.
The final is scheduled for Thursday, 18 September 2025 at 9:24am Dominican time, which is 10:24pm in Japan. Paulino will look to defend her world title and make history for Dominican athletics.
If she wins, Paulino would join an elite group of athletes to have won back-to-back world championships in the 400-meter race, a list currently only featuring Australia’s Cathy Freeman, who won in 1997 and 1999.
Paulino is the holder of the Olympic Games record in the 400m she set in the Paris Olympic Games in 2024 when she won the first Olympic Games gold medal for a Dominican woman.
This would be Paulino’s third World Championship gold medal, following her 400-meter victory in Budapest in 2023 and a win with the Dominican mixed 4×400-meter relay team in 2022. She is also setting her sights on breaking the world record in this year’s event.
The runners in the 400 women’s final are:
Nickisha Pryce (Jamaica)
Henriette Jaeger (Norway)
Roxana Gomez (Cuba)
Sydney MacLaughlin-Levrone (USA)
Amber Anning (Great Britain)
Salwa Eid Naser (Bahrein)
Natalia Bukowiecka (Poland)
Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic)
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N Digital
17 September 2025