Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Eugene 2022 World Championships silver medallist Paulino dominated the women's 400m race at the Estadio Nacional Jorge "El Mágico" González, setting a Games record 49.95sec to surpass the 50.95 qualifying mark for Paris 2024.

Cuba's Roxana Gómez was left trailing 1.28 further back in second, with Gabby Scott of Puerto Rico third in 51.51.

Paulino is the fifth athlete to qualify for the women's 400m at next year's Olympics, following on from American trio Britton Wilson, Lynna Irby and the 400m hurdles Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and The Netherlands' Lieke Klaver.

A fast men's 400m race featured two athletes who beat the Olympic threshold of 45.00.

World indoor champion Richards won the race in 44.54, with Joseph finishing second in 44.90.

Gilles Biron from Martinique - who competes for France at the Olympic Games - finished third in 45.06 for a bronze but narrowly missed the qualifying mark.

Richards and Joseph are the first two athletes to qualify for Paris 2024 in the men's 400m.

In the day's other athletics events, Mexico added three further golds to their Games' table-topping tally.

Jorge Luna led a one-two for his country in the men's pole vault by clearing 5.40 metres, with Victor Castillero in second notching 5.30m.

Laura Galván won the women's 10,000 metres with a Games record 33min 12.28sec, beating Viviana Aroche, a Guatemalan athlete competing under the Centro Caribe Sports (CCS) banner due to the suspension of her country's National Olympic Committee, by 26.16.

Pan American Games gold medallist Fernando Martínez triumphed in the men's 1500m in 3:43.47, narrowly beating Puerto Rico's Rob Napolitano by 0.39.

Joselyn Brea of Venezuela set a Games record 4:10.39 for women's 1500m gold with Cuban duo Sahily Diago and Daily Cooper less than one second further back. 

Dominican Republic's Rosa Ramírez won the women's shot put with a 17.89 metres throw and Trinidad and Tobago's London 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott dominated the men's javelin throw with 83.60m.

Marys Patterson of Cuba triumphed in the 800m in 2:16.52 to seal the heptathlon gold with 5,978 points, leapfrogging Martha Araújo of Colombia who finished fifth in the 800m in 2:21.68 and second overall with 5,960.

In the relays, Cuba set a women's 4x100m Games record of 43.17, and Trinidad and Tobago triumphed in the men's 4x100m in 38.30.

A double from Ettson Ayón helped Mexico win the men's football final 2-1 against Costa Rica at the Estadio Las Delicias, where a late goal from Exon Arzú had earlier helped Honduras to earn bronze by the same scoreline against hosts El Salvador.

Mexico's team success continued in the men's hockey as they thrashed Trinidad and Tobago 5-1 in the final at Parque del Este, with Cuba beating Barbados 4-2 in the match for bronze.

The medals-table topping nation found further success in the open water swimming mixed relay, which Paulo Strehlke, Martha Sandoval, Paulina Alanis and Daniel Delgadillo won in 57:11.3.

They had a one-two in the men's individual trampoline led by Jose Marin with 57.010, the women's individual event at the Polideportivo Merliot featuring a Colombian one-two led by Katish Hernández's 50.070.

Alejandra Ramírez won the women's trap shooting final for Mexico with 39 targets from 10 series at the Polígono de Tiro al Plato El Higuero, with men's trap gold going to Eduardo Lorenzo with 41 targets.

Colombia won both speed skating 1,000m sprint golds at the Patinódromo El Polvorín through Fabriana Arias in 1:31.611 in the women's and Andres Jimenez in 1:25.656 in the men's.

Cuba won three of the first four canoe sprint golds at Presa El Rincón, Venezuela's Leocadio Pinto denying them a clean sweep with a men's single kayak 1,000m victory in 3:43.39.

José Ramón Pelie took men's single canoe 1,000m gold in 3:55.01, Robert Benítez and Yan Samé triumphed in the men's double kayak 500m in 1:38.03, and Darisleydis Amador Rodríguez and Yurieni Guerra Herrera were women's doubles kayak 500m winners in 1:51.08.

Cuba also edged the Dominican Republic 45-44 for women's sabre team fencing gold at the Gimnasio de Universidad de El Salvador, with Puerto Rico taking the men's team foil title 45-43 against Venezuela.

Prisis Randish led a Cuban diving one-two with a score of 294.60 at the Complejo Deportivo El Polvorín in the women's 3m springboard, and Leonardo García and Sebastián Villa of Colombia took men's 10m platform synchronised gold with 366.15.

The day's taekwondo and karate golds were both shared by four different nations.

In karate at the Cuna del Mágico, Dominican Republic's María Dimitrova won the women's kata with a score of 40.90 to the 40.60 of Colombia's Valentina Zapata, and the men's equivalent event was won by Venezuela's Cleiver Casanova with 41.10 to the 39.90 of Dominican Republic's Larry Aracena.

El Salvador's Gabriella Izaguirre beat Colombia's Sofia Cardenas 5-4 for women's under-50 kilograms kumite gold, and José Luque edged the men's under-60kg final by ippon after a 3-3 draw with CCS' Pedropablo de la Roca.

Costa Rica's Nishy Lee Lindo was the first taekwondo winner of the day, getting a 6-0, 3-0 triumph against Dominican Republic's Andrialis Bonilla in the women's under-57kg at the Juan Pablo Duarte venue, followed by Bernardo Pié's 8-8, 16-1, 13-8 for the Dominican Republic against David Felipe Paz of Colombia in the men's under-68kg.

Cuba's Arlettys Acosta defended her women's under-67kg title 2-2, 0-0, 8-3 against Haiti's Ava Lee, and Miguel Trejos triumphed in the men's under-80kg for Colombia 20-6, 16-5 against Costa Rica's Alejandro Flores.

Chess competition concluded with the blitz competitions at the Hotel Best Wester Terraza.

Vicmary Perez won the women's first and Annyd Otazo the second events for Venezuela, Jamaica's Joshua Christie took men's first gold and Luis Quesada triumphed in the second.

Tomorrow is set to mark the penultimate day of the Central American and Caribbean Games with medal events in 21 sports.

Mexico continue to lead with 127 golds, followed by 76 for Colombia and 67 for Cuba.

San Salvador stepped in to host the Games for the third time after Panama City withdrew due to COVID-19 concerns.

Critics have accused El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele of seeking to use the multi-sport event for sportswashing.

He has sought to crack down on gangs in the country, but has been accused of human rights violations and an increasingly authoritarian rule.