Lauren Hoffman (left) and Robyn Brown. (PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK)
Lauren Hoffman and Robyn Brown emerged fastest in the women’s 400-meter hurdles of the 2024 Hong Kong Athletics Championships on Sunday.
Hoffman, coming off a solid second-place performance at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa last week, topped the race in 57.15 seconds, just a hairline difference from the 57.59 clocking of Brown that completed a 1-2 finish for the Filipino-heritage tracksters.
Both of their clockings finally wiped out the record of Hong Kong’s Chen Mei Li (58.47) after nearly 14 years.
Hussein Perez Lorana followed Hoffman and Brown to the podium by clinching the gold medal in the men’s 800m (1:52.11), beating Fontaine Sean Hsien-Ming (1:53.02) and Khan Mohammad Kamran (1:53.60) at the line.
READ: Asian Games: Lauren Hoffman, Robyn Brown reach 400m hurdles final
Sprinter Kristina Marie Knott likewise ruled her event, topping the women’s 100m in 11.52 seconds, a split-second short of erasing the 1998 record of Hong Kong’s Yan Jian Kui (11.19).
Team Philippines tallied three gold medals and one silver while awaiting the result of the men’s long jump where Janry Ubas is a podium contender.
Chan Pui Kei and Luo Tsz Yuen placed second (11.82) and third (11.86) behind Knott, who is using the event as a springboard to the ICTSI Philippine Athletics Championships beginning Wednesday along with Hoffman and Brown.
READ: Lauren Hoffman, Robyn Brown still on target for Paris Olympics tickets
The Philippine Athletics Championships set at the Philsports track and field oval until May 12 offers Olympic ranking points for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Hoffman frog-leaped by seven rungs to No. 29 in the World Athletics Olympic qualifying ratings in her event after the Des Moines meet.
Brown, the current Asian champion in the event, slipped to No. 43 from No. 39 out of the magic 40 who will advance to Paris and should gain ground at the Philippine Athletics Championships.
Other tracksters bidding to join pole vaulter EJ Obiena in the French capital come July are hurdlers Eric Cray (men’s 400m hurdles), John Tolentino Cabang (men’s 110m hurdles) and Ubas, the Southeast Asian Games long jump king.