Jakarta — If Eric Shawn Cray can just make a repeat performance of his semifinal running in the 400m hurdles of the 2016 Rio Olympics, there is a big chance he might end up winning the gold in the 2018 Asian Games here.
Cray, whose pet event was originally set on Monday, will try to qualify first in the re-scheduled 400m hurdles at 11 a.m. today and hope to take it from there in an effort to win the Philippines’ first medal in the Asian Games in 24 years.
The 29-year-old Cray ran the 400m hurdles of the Rio Olympics in a blistering 49.37 seconds, which if he did during the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, would have easily dislodged the 49.71 of gold medal winner, Bahrain’s Ali Khamis, who is defending his title here.
And from the looks of it, the Fil-American is in tip-top shape.
The two-time 400m hurdles champion of the SEA Games (Myanmar and Singapore) is coming off a gold medal in the 400M hurdles of the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships. He was also the silver medalist in the 60M Run of the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.
“If everything goes right, many of our athletes can spring some surprises,” said Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association president Dr. Philip Ella Juico.
Cray, who finished sixth with a 51.47 in the Incheon edition of the games, has improved since that performance. He had 50.04 in the World Championships in Beijing, China in 2015, before submitting a 49.07 during the 2016 World Challenge in Kawasaki, Japan, where he earned a silver.
In the same World Challenge, this time in Madrid, Spain, also in 2016, Cray ran a scorching 48.98, his personal best, to likewise earn the silver, before his title-clinching 49.57 in the Asian Championships in Bhubaneswar, only last year.
The last time the Philippines bagged an athletics’ medal of any color in the Asian Games was during the 1994 Hiroshima Asiad, courtesy of Elma Muros, whose 6.41-meter leap in the long jump competitions was worth a bronze.
Aside from Cray, three more from the athletics’ team here plunge into action as marathoner Mary Joy Tabal, hurdler Clinton Bautista and long jumper Marestella Torres-Sunang get going.
Tabal, the marathon queen of the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, starts the PH campaign for the day with the marathon at 6 a.m.
“This is a special opportunity for Tabal to prove herself against the North Koreans, Japan, China and some of these middle eastern countries,” said Juico, “I don’t think she will be wanting in spirit. According to the report I got, she’s ready, she’s well-conditioned, she spent most of her time in Tuscany, Italy (training). We are hoping for the best as usual.”
After Tabal, Bautista, the bronze medalist in the same Malaysia SEA Games, takes his turn as he tries to qualify in the 110M hurdles at 10 a.m.
A four-time SEA Games long jump queen whose reign began in the Manila edition of the meet in 2005, Torres-Sunang makes what could be her last hurrah in these games as attempts to advance in the finals of the long jump competitions starting at 10:30 a.m.
Meanwhile, SEA Games decathlon gold medalist Aries Toledo began his bid on a bright note as he placed second in the first event of his discipline, clocking 10.84 in the 100M behind Saudi Arabia’s AL QAREE Mohammed Jasem Al Qaree (10.77).
He later ranked 4th in the high jump and eighth in the shotput.
Newcomer Kristina Knott was scheduled in the 100M heats later in the day.