Sprinter Kristina Knott is just a fraction of a second away from clinching an Olympic spot in the 100 meters and 200 meters.
Knott, the reigning 200m Southeast Asian Games champion and record-holder, is just nine-hundredths of a second off the 200m Olympic standard and 0.12 seconds off in the century dash.
The Olympic standard for the women’s 100m is 11.15 seconds and 22.80 seconds for the 200m.
“I’m aiming for both, so whichever I hit before the window closes is the one I’ll be competing in, hopefully,’’ Knott said.
The 25-year-old Knott is in Orlando, Florida, and has been training online with coach Rohsaan Griffin and strength and conditioning mentor Carlo Buzzichelli.
She will meet up personally with Griffin in a week or two in Austin, Texas, and train face-to-face for seven to 10 days so that they can work on Knott’s skills before going back to their respective home bases.
Athletics chief Philip Ella Juico has great confidence that Knott will join the Philippine Olympic team next year in Tokyo with several qualifying races coming up.
“She’s just a little off the 100m and 200m standards and she can either qualify outright or by ranking, but we prefer that she qualifies outright,’’ Juico said during Tuesday’s Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum.
“There’s a lot of potential in her, so I’m very confident [that she will make it]. She’s good for at least two Olympics,’’ Juico said during the weekly forum backed by San Miguel Corp., Go for Gold and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.
Knott now owns the Philippine record in the 100m after eclipsing Lydia de Vega-Mercado’s 33-year-old record of 11.28 seconds with an 11.27-second performance behind US NCAA Division I athlete of the year Kayla White in the 2020 Drake Blue Oval Showcase in Des Moines, Iowa, last August. INQ