Marileidy Paulino

Santo Domingo, August 24 (PL)-- Dominicans stopped feeling the sound of the rain that accompanies the tropical storm for a few seconds, the same seconds it took Marileydi Paulino to run the 400 meters in the final of the World Athletics Championships.

"Marileidy Paulino, great and dominant, takes the gold at the World Athletics Championships" headlined Diario Libre's report on the 26-year-old's victory.

The newspaper reported that Paulino won first place in the 400 meters "in a comfortable run that she defined in the last 150 meters".

After calling her "the queen of the distance", it pointed out that the Dominican's time is her personal best.

With the headline "Marileidy Paulino, new 400 meters world champion", Listín Diario pointed out that the Dominican sprinter clearly dominated the track lap and finished with a time of 48 seconds and 76 hundredths, beating her own record.

On its front page, highlighted with a blue background and large white letters, Momento Deportivo highlighted: Marileidy Paulino is World Champion! and commented that she was unreachable for the rest of the seven runners who accompanied her in the race for the medals in the final disputed in the Nemzeti Atlétikai Központ Stadium, in Budapest.

Similarly, elCaribe, DiarioDigitalRD, Hoy Digital, Récord, ESPN Deportes and other print and digital media, as well as national television and radio echoed the girl's triumph.

As Nelson de la Rosa Rodríguez wrote in Momento Deportivo, Marileidy's title is a balm of joy for all the people of her country who are suffering today from the ravages of tropical storm Franklin and places her as the best athlete of the Dominican Republic.

Rodríguez added that this triumph places her name next to that of the two-time Olympic champion in the 400 meters hurdles, Félix Sánchez, who won the gold medal in the World Championships of Edmonton 2001 and Paris 2003.