Eric Cray is excited to run faster in the semis in order to get a slot in the finals
Filipino-American Eric Cray is excited to run at the semi-finals of the men’s 400m hurdles Wednesday morning, Manila time (Tuesday evening Brazil time) at the Nilton Santos Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
Cray, the fastest man in Southeast Asia, is determined to get to the finals where he can shoot for at least the bronze medal. If he advances, he will be the first Filipino in the Olympic finals of the men’s 400m hurdles after Miguel White did it in 1936 in Berlin. White, also a Fil-American, won the bronze in Berlin.
On Monday noon (August 15), Cray finished third among six runners in Heat 4 of the preliminaries with his time of 49.05. It is just a tick slower than his best time of 48.96.
On Wednesday, 9:30AM, the top three runners in each of the six heats will be joined by six seeds in the semis.
A total of 24 runners are in the semis, divided into three heats of eight runners each. The top two from each heat will advance to the finals while the two other slots will be a tossup among the remaining runners, based on their semis clockings.
“I qualified to the next round and I’m really excited. That was my second fastest time. I just want to get to the semis tomorrow and run as fast as I can and hopefully make it to the finals” said Cray.
“I had no doubt. I knew I just had to go out there and run to the best of my ability. I did that and I’m going to the semis,” he said after the race.
“It’s the perfect weather to run on,” said the 27-year-old as he headed back to the Athletes Village, needing to recover as fast as he can.
Cray will be in the second of three semifinal heats, bunched with Sergio Fernandez of Spain (49.31), Jameel Hyde if Jamaica (49.24), Keisuke Nozawa of Japan, who topped Cray’s heat earlier, (48.62), Jack Green of Great Britain (48.96), Abdelmalik Lahoulou of Algeria (48.62), Boniface Mucheru of Kenya (48.91) and Kerron Clement of the United States (49.17).
The 27-year-old Cray, born to a Filipina mother in Olongapo City and an American father but raised in Texas, USA.