Dan Wolken

USA TODAY Sports

RIO DE JANEIRO — American Dalilah Muhammad picked a good year to hit her peak in the 400-meter hurdles.

After two years of struggling with injuries and losing confidence over disappointing results, Muhammad won gold Thursday in 53.14 seconds, dominating the race despite a light rain that fell over Olympic Stadium.

Taking command early, Muhammad found herself all alone in the final 100 meters, cruising to the finish by a comfortable .42 seconds over Denmark’s Sara Slott Petersen. It’s the first time an American woman has won a gold medal in this event.

American Ashley Spencer, who was far back early, earned the bronze medal with a strong finishing kick while posting her personal best time of 53.72 seconds.

Ashton Eaton repeats as decathlon gold medalist

“It’s so exciting,” said Muhammad, the first American woman to win Olympic gold in the event. “This means so much; I’ve been working so hard for this. The last two years haven’t been the best but to finally be where I’m supposed to be at the right time, and I’m so happy about that.”

Muhammad’s performance at the U.S. Olympic trials foreshadowed her gold-medal run here. After making a coaching change in February and improving her fitness level, she posted the fastest time in the world this year and shaved nearly a second off her personal best.

“I just to remotivate myself to work harder,” she said. “I worked as hard as I ever did in this last year and being so much more disciplined played a huge factor.”

Though she didn’t run that fast in Rio, it was an impressive performance nonetheless for the former Southern Cal hurdler. Her game plan coming out of lane No. 3 was to hit the front as quickly as possible, and she didn’t disappoint. By hurdle No. 8, she had opened up on the field and was only going to get caught if she made a mistake.

“I’m always trying to be the first one to the first hurdle,” Muhammad said. “I don’t really know what I was today but I caught the girl to my right fairly quickly, so once I did that I tried to even out with the rest of the race. I could tell I was in front but you never know in the 400 hurdles until you’re right at the finish. It wasn’t my (personal record), but I think it was a job well done.”

Spencer, who just this year began competing full-time in hurdles, said she made technical mistakes during the race and was probably too conservative in laying back off the pace early but was thrilled to leave with the bronze.

“I knew if I was just patient enough I could strike when it was time and I trusted my training and strategy,” she said. “I wasn’t going to panic because everybody took off. I have a very specific race distribution that caters to my 400 flat speed. I really work on my last 150 in practice. I’m still learning, but winning this bronze catapults my confidence and I have a lot of success coming my way.”

TRACK AND FIELD AT THE RIO OLYMPICS

.

