By MARK REY MONTEJO
Fil-Americans Lauren Hoffman, Kristina Knott and Eric Cray vow to remain motivated despite falling short of making the Olympic qualifying standard at the 2024 Philippine Athletics Championships on Friday evening, May 10, at the Philsports Track and Field Oval in Pasig City.
As expected, they won their respective events but their winning performances were way off the criteria set for their respective events for the Paris Olympics.
Hoffman, 25, breezed through the field and topped the women’s 400 meters 55.92 seconds, but it was still short of the Olympic qualifying standard of 54.85sec. She also ruled the 100m hurdles in a record-breaking feat, but missed the Games qualifying mark.
Knott also captured her second gold after becoming the fastest female in the competition with an 11.27sec performance.
She needs to push herself harder is she is to hurdle the qualifying time of 11.07sec.
She earlier won in the women’s 200m.
Even 2016 Rio Olympian Eric Cray couldn’t hide his frustration with his performance despite winning the men’s 400m hurdles with a time of 50.51sec.
“I’m definitely trying to hit the Paris (Olympics) mark. Practice has been going great. I feel great but it’s just not coming out,” said Cray, who needed to run two seconds faster as the standard time for the said event is 48.70sec.
The six-time Southeast Asian Games champion is scheduled to compete in six remaining tournaments before the July 30 deadline.
Meanwhile, Fil-British Victoria Bossong continued to make waves by leading the final qualifiers in women’s 800m with a time of 2 minutes and 12.7seconds.
In other results, Airex Villanueva (14.05 meters) and Nicolas Nieto (12.94m) made a 1-2 finish for Ateneo in the U20 shot put event.
Also triumphing were Team Aloysian’s Stephanie Cerezo in U18 women’s 3000m (12:05.80), University of Mindanao’s Kate McDowell in U20 women’s 3000m (11:52.57), Myla Ferreras in U20 women’s high jump (1.45m), Masbate’s Ana Bhianca Espenilla in U18 women’s javelin throw (49.36m), and Thailand’s Sawitree Kaewsuksri in women’s hammer throw (51.50m).
