2023-10-31 23:55:05
SANTIAGO (AP) — World champion Marileidy Paulino knows that a lot is expected of her at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games.
But pressure is not something that affects the sprinter from the Dominican Republic.
Paulino, one of the few elite figures who attended the continental competition, received on Tuesday the gold medal he won the day before along with his compatriots Anabel Medina, Ezequiel Suárez and Robert King in the 4×400 mixed relay.
World champion of the 400 meters Budapest last August, Paulino exuded all his class in his presentation at the National Stadium with a great closing in the test to give his country the gold medal, clearly surpassing his Brazilian opponent in the last post.
“This medal is an achievement that I had not had, nor had my colleagues. Thank God that he gave us the opportunity to have the medal,” Paulino said after receiving the medal from him. “There are still more tests to be done, let’s hope that the Dominican athletics team continues to win more.”
Although it is not his specialty, Paulino will run in the 200 meters where it is expected that he can fight for first place.
She knows it, but she doesn’t feel pressure to be the figure to follow in that test.
“I’m not confident, but the truth is I took it as normal, I don’t stress about it,” said the 27-year-old athlete from Nizao. “God gives me strength to focus on what is mine and not think about obstacles, although reading also calms me down.”
Paulino said that the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games are serving as preparation for the Paris Olympic Games, where he will seek to repeat on the podium after his silver in the 400 in Tokyo 2020.
“In the future there are the Olympic Games, but we also have to be well because there is a World Cup coming up (indoors in Glasgow in March 2024) and I have Diamond League competitions,” he remarked. “You have to be prepared for all that.”
And surely he will do everything without putting pressure on himself.
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