The Dominican Republic runner secured the gold medal at Gwangju 2015 but came under pressure in the closing stages here today.

Santos, the reigning Pan American Games champion, finished in a time of 45.24sec to take the victory.

He was followed closely by Cuba’s Yoandys Lescay Pardo, forced to settle for the silver medal in 45.31.

Poland’s Rafal Omelko ran strongly to secure the bronze medal in 45.56.

His team-mate Malgorzata Holub had gone better earlier in the evening, as she secured the women’s 400m crown by achieving a time of 51.76.

Holub was followed across the line by South Africa’s Justin Palframan and Romania’s Bianca Razor, who completed the medal positions in times of 51.83 and 51.97.

There was high drama in the women’s 800m when Cuba’s Rose Almanza Blanco was disqualified after seemingly having taken the gold, only to be reinstated following the medal ceremony having taken place.

Blanco won the race in a time of 2min 02.21sec and was followed across the line by Ukraine’s Olga Liakhova and Docus Ajok of Uganda, who ended in 2:03.11 and 2:03.22.

The winner was not present for the medal ceremony having been disqualified for an infringement, with Liakhova receiving gold, Ajok silver and original fourth place finisher Georgia Griffith of Australia the bronze.

A communiqué issued shortly after the ceremony, however, confirmed the original result was to stand with Blanco taking the gold.

There were no doubts with the women’s 400m hurdles as Italy’s Ayomide Temilad Folorunso triumphed in 55.63.

Poland’s Joanna Linkiewicz took silver in 55.90 and Ukraine’s Olena Kolesnychenko bronze in 56.14.

The men’s decathlon event brought action on the track to a conclusion, Australia’s Kyle Cranston winning with 7,687 points.

Finland’s Juuso Hassi and New Zealand’s Aaron Booth secured their country’s first medals of the Universiade by scoring 7,566 and 7,523 points respectively.

The Finnish team did not have long to wait for another medal, with the nation being represented on the podium in the women’s javelin, one of three field events contested.

The gold was medal won by Poland’s Marcelina Witek as she threw 63.31 metres in the fifth round to edge clear of Japan’s Marin Saito, who took silver on 62.37m.

Jenni Kangas of Finland won bronze with 60.98m as all three medallists achieved personal bests.

Germany’s Falk Wendrich and Italy’s Marco Fassinotti went head-to-head in the men’s high jump, both bowing out after failing three attempts at 2.31m.

Both men cleared 2.29m, but Fassanotti’s two failures at 2.26 mean Wendrich took the gold medal.

Chinese Taipei’s Hsiang Chun-Hsein won the bronze medal with 2.26m.

Nazim Babayev of Azerbaijan won the men’s triple jump by leaping 17.01m, with Burkina Faso’s Hugues Zango achieving a national record 16.97m for silver.

Ryoma Yamaoto of Japan clinched the bronze medal with a jump of 16.80m.