Gianna Woodruff gets DQ from Friday's 400 hurdles overturned to claim gold at Pan Am Games...

SANTIAGO, Chile--In Friday's recap, we wrote that University of Washington alum Gianna Woodruff (Alejandro Pagni/Santiago 2023 photo) was disqualified after winning the women's 400 hurdles in a time of 56.44.

Shortly after the conclusion of the race, the Costa Rican federation, on behalf of third place finisher Daniela Rojas, filed a protest, citing World Athletics rule 22.6.2 which essentially states that an athlete shall be disqualified, if "they knock down or displace any hurdle by hand, body or the front side of the lead lower limb".

Upon reviewing the race video, Woodruff hit hurdle number 9 with her foot in an attempt to clear the hurdle, instead of the lead lower limb.

The Panamanian federation filed a counter protest and got the disqualification overturned.

Woodruff becomes the first Panamanian woman to win an individual track & field medal for her country at the Pan Am Games.

Here is the article from the Panamanian publication Prensa (copy the link and paste into Google Translate).

In the final day of the track & field competition at the Pan Am Games at the Coliseo del Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez, Pasco native Marisa Howard, who came into the meet as the Pan Am silver medalist from 2019, finished fourth in the women's 3000 steeple in a time of 9:49.27.

Howard ran with the top 3 for most of the race, but faded in the final lap, as Belen Casetta of Argentina came from off the pace to win in 9:39.47, passing Idaho alum Alycia Butterworth of Canada, who was second in 9:40.86.

In the women's 800 finals, Olympia native Brooke Feldmeier was sixth in 2:06.10, as Sahily Diago of Cuba won in 2:02.71.

Seattle native Derek Holdsworth was pressed into duty and ran the second leg of the men's 4 x 400 relay team that took fifth place in a time of 3:08.67, as Brazil won in 3:03.92.

Complete results of the track and field portion of the Pan Am Games is available here. 

NOTE: The Santiago 2023 LOC, and USA Track & Field contributed to this report.

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