The 25-year-old Fil-Am clocked in 23.80 seconds, way under her personal best and season best, placing last among five competitors in Heat 7.
Filipino-American sprinter Kristina Knott makes an early exit from the women’s 200m run in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after finishing last in her heat on Monday morning.
The 25-year-old Knott clocked in 23.80 seconds, way under her personal best and season best, placing last among five competitors in Heat 7.
In the 2019 Southeast Asian Games held here in the Philippines, Knott broke the record twice in one day in the women’s 200m event.
Her final time and her personal record which she set in the final is 23.01 seconds is also the Philippine record for this event.
Her outing in the Olympics was also slower than her season best of 23.17.
The Fil-Am sprinter went up against Jenna Prandini of the US, the world No. 13, who topped the heat with a time of 22.56 seconds, Gina Bass of Gambia placing second with a time of 22.74 seconds and Riley Day of Australia finishing third to also qualify with a time of 22.94 seconds.
Only the top three sprinters of each heat and the next three fastest from across the seven heats will advance in the semifinals.
The best time clocked in all the heats was posted by Christine Mboma of Namibia at 22.11 seconds to zoom past Gabrielle Thomas of the United States, who clocked 22.20 seconds.
Knott then finished her first Olympics appearance, ranking 37th out of 42 runners in the event.
However, Jamile Samuel did not start the race so only 41 participants actually ran the course.
Kristina’s journey to the Olympics started after qualifying via the universality rule and then battled Covid-19 after booking a ticket to the quadrennial meet, just a few days before she was set to compete in a Sweden track meet.
Tags: #TokyoOlympics, #sprintrunning, #KristinaKnott