The overwhelming speed of Dominican world champion Marileidy Paulino was a hurricane on the first night of athletics at these Pan American Games. The effervescence of the Colombian Natalia Linares delighted the long jump. And Peru rode the gold wave.

And after boasting second place in the overall medal standings, Mexico fell to fourth place due to the surge from Brazil and Canada.

Santiago 2023 opened its final week with the start of athletics competitions at the National Stadium, set against the snow-capped peaks of the Andes mountain range.

Among the few stars of world athletics present in the Chilean capital, Paulino played a devastating role, so that the quartet of the mixed 4×400 relay — also composed of Anabel Medina, Ezequiel Suárez and Robert King — won the medal of gold with a time of 3:16:05.

Wrapped in a long-sleeved thermal shirt, Paulino — 400m world champion last August in Budapest — took charge of the last relay and crossed the finish line alone, 2.50 ahead of her rival Brazilian.

The Dominican mixed relay is a guarantee of success for the Dominicans, with a field of world champions and a silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

“We feel super good and confident about all the work we’ve done to get to this moment,” Medina said.

These Pan American Games fell on a date after the end of the athletics season and several personalities from the continent, such as the Venezuelan jumper Yulimar Rojas in the triple jump and the Puerto Rican Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, hurdler, chose to take a break and to put their perspective on the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Paulino decided to come. To avoid pushing herself too much, the 27-year-old sprinter chose to participate in the 200 instead of the 400, as well as the mixed relay.

The day allowed us to see Linares, a 20-year-old whose inspiration is retired triple jump champion Caterine Ibargüen. Linares, last year’s U20 world runner-up, jumped 6.66 meters to win gold.

MEDAL TABLE

Until now, with the exception of one day, Mexico has always held second place in the overall medal standings. But Monday was the third day in a row that the Mexicans left without adding anything to their gold column and were finally overtaken by Brazil and Canada.

Still at the top, the United States has 72 gold medals, 45 silver and 54 bronze for a total of 151.

Brazil took second place with a total of 37 gold medals – Izabela Rodrigues (discus throw), Samanta Soares (judo) and Tatiana Weston (surfing) contributed three titles on Monday. They also have 47 silver medals and 30 bronze medals for a total of 123.

Canada finished third with 35 gold medals and a total of 105 medals.

The only addition to Mexico’s total that day was Laura Galván’s silver medal in the women’s 10,000 meters. The delegation’s tally was 35 gold, 22 silver and 32 bronze medals for a total of 89.

Peru had by far its best performance, winning four gold medals: Luz Mery Rojas won the 10,000m, while Benoit Clemente, Lucca Mesinas and María Fernanda Reyes won the surfing events. This productive day saw Peru rise to seventh place with 7 gold medals and 22 in total.

Thanks to Linares, Colombia reached 14 gold medals and is in fifth place in the general ranking. Cuba won three judo titles to move closer to sixth place, with 11 gold medals and 24 overall.

Chile (6 and 38), the Dominican Republic (6 and 20) and Ecuador (4 and 12) complete the top 10.

THE PHRASE

“I’m 20 years old. “I have a long way to go, but I’ve achieved so much in such a short time, but it’s glorious.”

Linares said this after winning the long jump.

AND AFTER

The queen of athletics, the 100 meters, will compete in her finals in both branches on Tuesday. Also the long jump and the men’s 5,000 meters. The judo program will also be completed, in addition to definitions in fencing (2) and table tennis (2).