Kristina Knott almost broke the Philippine national record again at the International Meeting of the City of Castiglione della Pescaia in Italy.
The national mark almost fell after nine months when the 25-year-old Fil-American placed runner-up to Rio Olympics’ veteran Marie-Josée Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast with a time of 11.30 seconds, good for the silver, in the women’s 100-meter finals.
The last time the mark was shattered was in August last year when Knott ran against two superstars and earned the silver medal in the celebrity-laced Drake Blue Oval Showcase Presented by Mediacom at Drake Stadium in de Moines, Iowa.
Back then, 5’6” Knott cruised to second place at a national record-smashing 11.27 seconds, behind world no. 7 and United States indoor champion Kayla White and ahead of 2016 Olympic gold medallist Tianna Bartoletta.
And Knott did it with a tailwind of 1.5 meters per second blowing in her favor at that time.
With her current performance, coach Rohsaan Griffin said Knott’s efforts have gone way beyond her performance in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.
“It was better than her SEA Games’ time, she has run better than her SEA Games times all season. Actually, she has run better, period, since 2019,” said Griffin in a message to the Manila Standard.
Back in the 2019 SEA Games, Knott earned a bronze medal with a time of 11.55 seconds in the century dash, which was topped by Vietnamese bet Le Tu Chinh.
Knott made her stint memorable in Castiglione when she settled for two silver-medal finishes behind Ta Lou.
After Ta Lou, ranked no. 3 in the world, dashed to a 10.96-second gold medal win in the women’s 100 meters, the 25-year old Knott followed behind at 11.30 seconds for the silver.
Ta Lou’s sub 11-second time allowed her to hit the Olympic Qualifying Standard in the event and come up with her best showing of the season.
It was Knott’s second best time of the season after she endured a cold 16-degree (Celsius) temperature and settled down in a generous breeze of +4.0 meters/second.
Griffin added that Knott has been learning a lot when she joined numerous elite-level competitions since last year, counting in many factors, including 30-degree temperature differences, time changes, jet lag and event schedule against common practice times.
“And, someone who’s fairly new to this level of competition such as Kristina, she has to learn how to grow into the sport. How many athletes from South East Asia can say that they have lined up against the current World Champion or current World bronze medalist in a 10-day span? Not many if any,” added Griffin.
While in Castiglione, Ta Lou, a bronze medallist in the World Championships, then dominated the 200 meters in 22.88 seconds, with a +4.9 meters/second breeze blowing.
And Knott was right behind her in 23.19 seconds, which was also her second best time of the season.