LAUREN Hoffman and Robyn Lauren Brown emerged 1-2 in a riveting women’s 400-meter hurdles duel while Hussein Lorana and Kristina Knott also triumphed in the Hong Kong Athletic Championships at the Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground that ended yesterday.
Filipino athletes made their presence felt in the two-day meet in the former British Crown colony, with Hoffman and Brown matching stride for stride until the last meter to emerge first and second with times of 57.15 and 57.59 seconds, respectively.
They broke the 14-year-old All-Comers record of 58.47 seconds set by Hong Kong hurdler Chen Mei Li on October 7, 2010 at the same venue.
Both Olympic hopefuls, Hoffman, now ranked 29th in the World Athletics Olympic qualifying rankings of the event, and reigning Asian women’s 400-meter hurdles queen Brown, ranked No. 43, will have their rematch in the ICTSI Philippine Athletics Championships opening this Wednesday at the Philsports track oval in Pasig City.
Lorana, the current national junior record holder in the 800-m run and the UAAP Season 86 triple gold medalist, bagged the gold medal in her pet event with a time of 1:52.11, relegating hometown bets Fontaine Sean Hsien-win (1:53.-02) and Khan Mohammad Kamran (1:53.60) to second and third places, respectively.
Knott, a Tokyo Olympic Games veteran and 2019 Philippine Southeast Asian Games double gold medalist, rounded out the country’s medal finishers yesterday by topping the women’s century dash in 11.52 seconds, nosing out Hongkong’s Chan Pui Kei (11.82) and Luo Tsz Yuen (11.86).
All four are expected to share the spotlight in the ICTSI Philippine Athletics Championships organized by the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association that has already attracted more than 1,000 entries from all over Asia since it is a WA ranking qualifying meet.
