Osmary Pacheco won silver medal in the 400 meters flat at the Dakar 2026 Olympic Games

Published at: 09/11/2026 06:33 PM

The first final in Venezuelan youth and absolute Olympic history in 400 meters resulted in a silver medal for Osmary Pacheco in a photo arrival in which he broke three national records again, and with his mark of 52.85 he became just the second Venezuelan to fall below 53 in the return to the oval at the Dakar Olympics.

First in the standings of the two Saturday qualifying series when the clock stopped at 53.01, leaving his best record of the year and the brightest in the country for children under 23, Pacheco had to start again on lane 7, where he had his two main opponents ahead of him: the Emirati Aisha Muhammed, for five, and the slender Nigerian Praise Ugoh in the six.

The African and the Caracas women came out the fastest with a reaction of 0.170, but in the first two hundred meters Pacheco was delayed a few meters. He reached the last corner away from Ugoh and Muhammed who were first and second, but in the last fifty meters Pacheco scored the most electrifying shot of all the finals played at the Iba Mar stadium.

Like an exhalation it passed Muhamed in the twenty meters and he was about to complete the gold feat, but the African made a last stretch of elastic to beat the fierce national runner almost by the nose.

The race culminated with Ugoh taking the gold one with a time of 52.76, followed by Pacheco with his 52.85 to get silver and the bronze went to Muhamed to score 53.06, the best record of the year for all three.

There was a little left

“The Nigerian came out to run very hard and I also did the same. He beat me by a very small amount,” said the first Venezuelan woman to win an Olympic medal in a track test.

Regarding the explosive shot in the last 50 meters in which he turned on the turbines to overtake Muhamed and leave his skin in the final photograph with Ugoh, Pacheco reconfirmed the frenetic arrival that took the breath away from all those who were in the stands.

“I shot very hard, she told me that I could do it, but as soon as she saw that she was already very close she jumped to the finish line before me, because she is much higher”, rewound the dramatic end of the 400 plane. “I am very happy to have finished on the podium, to have lowered my personal record and to break three national records at the age of 16. We fought, and with a little bit more the gold was ours,” added the Olympic runner-up, who is expected to break Nercely Soto's absolute national record of 51.94.

Diploma for Peña

In the men's 400 meter final, Richard Peña finished fifth with a time of 48.78 and was awarded an Olympic diploma for finishing in the top eight of the race.

The race was dominated from start to finish by Qatari Saeed Omar, who started ahead and took a multi-length advantage over the Gambian Mustapha Jadama and the Chinese Han Liu, who tried to push in the final stretch but the one from the Arabian Peninsula accelerated and resolved the race.

Omar won gold with his best record of the year at 46.40, Jadama was silver with 46.93 and Liu took bronze when he stopped the stopwatch at 47.16

Venezuelan athletics closes its participation this Tuesday on the last day of competition, when the garrochista Emmanuel Chávez, who has 4.60 as the registration mark, will see action.

Mazo News Team