KRISTINA Knott, proud owner of three Philippine records, is now in contention for a berth in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
This was after the 28-year-old Knott, who already broke the marks set by Lydia de Vega-Mercado in the 100-meters, the 200-meter sprints, and in the indoor 200-meters, joined the first two outdoor competitions in the United States in the past two weekends.
As her world ranking began moving up, now at 108 from 119 last March, so did Knott’s chances to make it to the Olympiad.
Knott is now in the world ranking quota at no. 40, after she settled for seventh in the women’s 200-meter event, with her time of 23.21 seconds last March 30 in the 2024 Texas Relays at the Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas.
In her first indoor outing this year, Knott had her season’s best showing of 23.49 seconds in the Willie Williams Classic at the Roy P. Drachman Stadium in Tucson, Arizona last March 22.
The Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association has noted Knott’s performance and has short-listed her for a possible Olympic slot, along with Lauren Hoffman and Robyn Brown in the women’s 400-meter hurdles, John Cabang Tolentino in the men’s 100-meter hurdles and Janry Ubas in men’s long jump.
Also last week, the 28-year-old Knott ran as fast the late Lydia de Vega-Mercado when she almost equalled the Philippine national mark that she currently owns, also while competing at the Texas Relays.
Knott, who saw action in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, finished with a fast time of 11.28 seconds to settle for fourth place in the women’s 100-meter run invitationals, some 1/100 seconds off the record time of 11.27 seconds, which she submitted four years ago.
The last time she ran this fast was during LSU Alumni Gold meet at LSU Bernie Moore Stadium, Baton Rouge back in 2021 for the gold, also at 11.28 seconds.
She was at her fastest when Knott broke the 33-year-old Philippine national mark of Lydia de Vega-Mercado a year before in 2020 at 11.27 seconds.
De Vega-Mercado used to hold the Philippine record at 11.28 seconds when she saw action in the 1987 Southeast Asia Games.
Last February, Knott smothered her third Philippine mark in women’s indoor 200 meters at the Arkansas Qualifier in Fayetteville, Arkansas, clocking 23.57 seconds to get past the the four-year-old national mark of 23.90 seconds set by Zion Corrales-Nelson at the MPSF Championships in Seattle, Washington.