Yaseen Pérez coach of Dominica Republic quarter mile star Marileidy Paulino has confirmed that the sprinter hopes to target the longstanding 400m world record in coming seasons.

Paulino has had an outstanding 2022, setting national records in both the 200m and 400m.  In addition to that, the 25-year-old athlete claimed a silver medal at IAAF World Championships and ended the season by capturing the Diamond Trophy.  On that occasion, the athlete set another national record and more importantly dipped below the 49-second mark for the first time in her career.

The time of 48.99 marks the athlete the 12^th fastest in history.  A fine accomplishment, but approaching the record of 47.60, set, and held for 37 years, by the German Democratic Republic’s Marita Koch is no simple feat.  In fact, the sprinters in the many years since have found it almost difficult to even approach the previous mark of 47.99 set by Czechoslovakia’s Jarmila Kratochvílová in 1983. 

 "That's a dream she has, we both have it. In the end, we are going to keep working. It's a tough thing, but so far everything has been difficult and we have set out on the road to the world record," said Pérez said.  Despite the difficulty, the coach points out the athlete has been taking things stage by stage.

"Next year we are going to try to establish the stability of 48 seconds. This season, we had worked very well to maintain the levels obtained in the Olympic Games and as we worked throughout the year, improving the speed part, we saw what was coming and the time of 48 became a fact. It didn't happen at the world championships because of the disruption of the relays, but we had been working to lower it.”

Shericka Jackson sizzling performance on Sunday’s final day of Jamaica’s National Senior Championships made her the third fastest woman over 200m in history. Only Florence Girrifth-Joyner (21.34) and Elaine Thompson-Herah (21.53) have run faster than the 27-year-old Olympic bronze medallist.

The lifetime best 200m time also moved her above Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas as the best active combination sprinter in history by virtue of her times of 10.76 in the 100m, 21.55 and 49.47 in the 400m.

Only East Germany’s Marita Koch (10.83/21.71/47.60), Griffith-Joyner (10.49/21.34/50.89) and Marion Jones (10.65/21.62/49.59) are ranked higher than the affable Jamaica sprinter, who revealed that the jaw-dropping run on Sunday that left Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah (22.05) and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (22.140 trailing in her wake, was the result of a lot of hard work.

“I have been working really hard on running the curve. I wanted to do that and I know that once I ran that curve and execute properly, just to relax down the home stretch, I knew I would have run fast but this fast I never expected it but I am grateful,” she said afterwards.

The bad news for the rest of the world is that Jackson believes she has even more speed in those powerful legs of hers, the speed that the world is likely to see at the World Athletics Championships that begin in Eugene, Oregon on July 15.

“The curve is one of the things I want to master. I think I did pretty good tonight. So many mistakes made so I know definitely coach will correct them,” she said.

“I never wanted to put any pressure on myself. People out there will put pressure but listening to my coach, execute properly, I know I can go faster.”