SPLIT BY CRAY
Fil-Am succumbs to rigors, tops hurdles, loses sprint
Eric Shaun Cray came back from a year-long training in the US and a stint in the World Championships in India to retain the gold in 400m hurdles of the 29th Southeast Asian Games here but was too exhausted an hour later to retain his title as the region’s king of the tracks last night.
He posted a time of 50.03 seconds, barely edging Vietnam’s Quach Kong Lich (50.05) but his official time fell below the 49.40 he set in winning the SEA Games title in 2015 in Singapore.
Cray kept a frontrunning position going into the final straight when he took one last look at the giant screen above. The Vietnamese took the cue to put in one last burst of speed to catch up with Cray going into the last five meters and reduced that to a hairline down the wire. It took over five minutes before officials could announce him the winner from the photo finish.
While Cray and Quach were slugging it out in the final strait, Francis Medina, who was running third, hit the last hurdle and fell to the ground. He was brought out of the tracks on a wheelchair.
Cray was obviously spent from the 400m hurdles and needed to be isolated from reporters to be able to take a rest and concentrate for the sprints set an hour and half later.
Nineteen-year-old Khairul John Tan of Malaysia was the big beneficiary of the organizers’ decision to schedule Cray’s 100m dash and 400m hurdles less than two hours apart as he came to the tracks with fresh legs and ready to take the challenge.
Tan clocked 10.38 seconds for the gold while Cray took the silver in 10.43 seconds.
Thai Kritisada Namsuwun also turned in a 10.43 clocking but settled for bronze.