Fil-American Victoria Bossong ran a faster time of two minutes and 2.05 seconds on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) to reach the semifinals of the US NCAA Division 1 Track and Field Championships.
The 21-year-old Bossong, a Philippine national team aspirant studying at Harvard University, shaved almost two seconds off her preliminary-round clocking in the quarterfinals, to place fourth in the first heat.
This put Bossong behind heat 2 top qualifier, Hayley Kitching of Penn State University, along with second and third qualifiers, Aniya Mosley of Ohio State, and Duke University’s Lauren Tolbert.
Kitching, Mosley and Tolbert were the first three qualifiers in their heat, with clockings of 2:01.43, 2:01.52 and 2:01.98, respectively.
“With tactical races, positioning myself and making smart moves are the keys,” said Bossong on her experience in joining the Kentucky meet.
Overall, Bossong was ninth from among a total of 12 qualifiers,
Among the top qualifiers is Paris Olympics-bound Micaela Rose of Louisiana State University, who led in 1:59.05.
Behind Rose were Clemson’s Gladys Chepngetch (1:59.81) and Harvard teammate Sophia Gorrarian (2:00.65).
The national finals of the 2024 NCAA outdoor track and field championships will be on Wednesday until Saturday, with both the men’s and women’s championships held simultaneously.
Finals’ action will be done at the Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
Later, Bossong anchored Harvard’s women’s 4×400 meter relay squad to a third-place finish in heat 3 of the qualifying round. With her time of 51.51 seconds, the Harvard Crimson checked in at 3:30.49.
The Crimsons were behind University of South Carolina (3:26.73) and University of Pennsylvania (3:29.93).
