Fil-American Kristina Knott raced against the best in the region and settled for a silver medal in the women’s 100-meter sprints on Sunday (Monday in Manila) at the Pure Athletics Spring Invitational athletics meet in Clermont, Florida.
In one of her most challenging encounters in a year, Knott submitted a time of 11.36 seconds in the finals, battling Ecuadorian trackster and Continental Cup 100-meter relays champion Angela Tenoria, who took the gold medal in 11.33 seconds,
Following the silver finish, Knott drew raves from her coach Rohsaan Griffin, who said the performance was the best that the Fil-American has done so far, considering that she ran three races that were minutes apart from each other.
Khalifa St. Fort, a member of the Trinidad and Tobago national youth team, earned the bronze in 11.9 seconds.
Knott reached the finals after topping the third heat in 11.57 seconds.
Griffin felt that Knott is within range of the 11.15-second clocking that she is trying to achieve in order to hit the qualifying standard for the Tokyo Olympics.
Later, Knott faced off with Rio Olympics 400-meter gold medallist Shaunee Miller-Uibo in the star-studded women’s 200-meters, submitting a time of 23.61 seconds in the heats and finishing seventh overall.
Miller-Uibo hit the Olympic standard time of 22.8 seconds when she reached the finish line for the gold in 22.03 seconds.
And so did 4×400 meter relays World Champion Quanera Hayes, who settled for the silver in 22.68 seconds.
Pan American Games 400-meter relay gold medal winner Lynn Irby also breached the 22.8-second mark with a 22.75 second clocking.
“Knott’s 23.61 for 200 meters? Not a bad start after not running a 200 in close to over a year and having three races in one day roughly each an hour apart,” noted Griffin.
Knott’s time in the 100 was the second-fastest she has done since breaking the Philippine national record back in August last year.
The last time she ran competitively in the 100 meters seven months ago, Knott came up with an 11.27 during the powerhouse Drake Blue Oval Showcase meet at Drake Stadium in August, bettering the 11.28 record of Lydia de Vega-Mercado in 1997.
But it remains unrecognized by the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association because of a tailwind of 1.5 meters per second that was measured during the event.
