HANGZHOU—Lauren Hoffman and Robyn Brown qualified for the finals of athletics’ 400-meter hurdles in the 19th Asian Games at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre on Monday.
The 24-year-old Hoffman finished second in Heat 2 with a clocking of 57.61, behind only Brunei’s Oluwakemi Mujidat Adekoya (57.17).
“My goal is to win. I think there is a chance, I definitely want a medal. I think I’m very capable of a medal,” said Hoffman, who is also entered in the 4×400 relay team with Brown on Wednesday. “I know winning will be hard, but I definitely will try to win. I know I have it in me.”
“Plan is to get out hard for the first 200, and just hold on, dig deep with everything I have left,” Hoffman said.
Brown, 29, and reigning Asian championships’ 400m hurdles champion at 57.50 seconds, barely made the finals with her fifth-place finish in Heat 1 where she clocked 58.34 seconds.
“It’s been a long season. It’s been definitely fun, I had a lot of achievements this year. Looking to see myself in the podium,” Brown said.
Hoffmann and Brown will face off with Japan’s Ami Yamamoto (personal best 56.06), Kazakhstan’s Adelina Zems (PB 57.16), Brunei’s Adekoya (PB 53.09) and Aminat Oluwaseun Yusuf Jamal (PB 55.12), India’s Vithya Ramraj (PB 55.42) and China’s Mo Jiadie (PB 54.89) at in the championship run at 7:20 p.m. on Tuesday.
Six-time Southeast Asian Games’ 400m hurdles champion Eric Cray was not as fortunate to make it to the finals, though, as he emerged fifth in Heat 3 with a clocking of 50.24.
Kristina Knott finished sixth in 23.79 seconds in the 200m final won by Singapore’s Veronica Shanti Pereira (23.03), with China’s Li Yuting (23.28) and Brunei’s Edidiong Ofonime Odiong (23.48) placing second and third, respectively.
John Tolentino, on the other hand, placed out of the podium with a 4th best clocking of 13.62 seconds in the finals of the 110m hurdles won by Kuwait’s Yaquob Alyouha, who timed 13.41. Japan’s Shyunya Takayama and China’s Xu Zhuoyi ranked second and third, respectively.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes
