Grateful Cray zeroes in on Tokyo 2020 stint

(FromL) USA’s Kerron Clement, Philippines’ Eric Cray and Kenya’s Boniface Mucheru Tumuti compete in the Men’s 400m Hurdles Semifinal during the athletics event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on August 16, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / PEDRO UGARTE

RIO DE JANEIRO—Filipino-American hurdler Eric Cray is relishing his Olympic experience like a boy slowly licking a pricey lollipop birthday gift. He’s already making plans to enjoy another one.

The 27-year-old Cray, he with the good-humored disposition and the yelping intonation a la Hollywood comedian Chris Tucker, is looking forward to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“Tokyo 2020 is going to be even better,” he said. “I just got to get ready for the next race and keep training for the Olympics.

“I want to get ready for Tokyo. I still got it in my heart and mind that I’m going to go to the next Olympics. Oh man, the past two years was like the beginning for me.”

Tucker, err, Cray, said he will fill his preparations for the 32nd Olympiad with achievements and better clockings.

First off, he will gun for four gold medals in next year’s Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia.

Already the defending champion in the century dash and the 400-meter hurdles, the Olongapo-born son of a former Navy sailor and his Filipino wife, Maria Brosas, wants to be the anchor of a victorious Philippine quartet in both the 4×100- and 4×400-meter relays.

Cray set the national records of 10.25 and 49.40 seconds, respectively, in the 2013 SEA Games in Naypyidaw, Burma (Myanmar), obliterating the opposition in such an authoritative manner that they were asking which planet he came from.

Home to the jovial Cray is El Paso, Texas, where he shares the house with his partner, an eight-year-old son, a little daughter, and his dutiful parents.

“Definitely I want to break my 100 and 400 records and help break the 4×100 record,” he said. “They are just the stepping stones for the Asian Games (in 2018).”