Filipino-American Kristina Knott has gained a significant increase in her position in the current Olympic rankings.
From being in the mid-80s in the past months, Knott has moved to 63rd place recently following improvements in her clockings in the women’s 200-meter run.
Knott’s good showing was first seen last April, when she took the bronze medal in the women’s 200-meters Olympic Development race with a time of 23.17 seconds at the 2021 Louisiana State University Alumni Gold Athletics meet in Baton Rouge.
Racing against Rio Olympic veteran Marie-Josée Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast on May 19 at the International Meeting of the City of Castiglione della Pescaia in Italy also counted as another of her best stints this year.
While Ta Lou, who is at no. 5 in the Olympics, dominated in the 200 meters in 22.88 seconds with a +4.9 meters/second breeze blowing, Knott settled for the silver in 23.9 seconds, her second best time for the season.
“Wouldn’t say it’s dramatic, but it’s significant, but it can also change based of her performance as well as others performances,” said Griffin in an interview with the Manila Standard.
The events that Knott have been joining were done against elite runners, who are among the Top 10 in the world.
As for Knott’s world rankings, she is at no. 90 and needs to earn more points to affect her Olympics rankings.
There are three ways for Knott to make it to the quadrennial meet.
First is through direct qualification by trying to breach the Olympic Qualifying Standard of 22.8 seconds.
Next is via world ranking quota, or through points earned by joining and placing in events joined throughout the qualification period. Knott will have a chance to add to this when she checks in this Monday at the Duval County Challenge, organized by the American Track League in Jacksonville, Florida.
The third is through the universality system, which allows a nation with no Olympic athletics qualifier to enter a male and a female representative in the Olympics.
In Florida, the 24-year-old Knott will take part in the 100-m and 200-meter races, with hopes that she will have another podium finish.
The meet will be at the University of North Florida, two days after the conclusion of the NCAA Division I trackfest.
So far, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, whom Knott competed against in the star-studded Drake Blue Oval Showcase last August, is the top qualifier to the Olympics with her best time of 21.74 seconds during a Zurich meet in 2019.
Coming in second is British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith, who qualified during the 2019 Doha World meet in 21.88 seconds. Asher-Smith won a gold while racing with Knott in a Savona meet earlier this month.
Jamaican Elaine Thompson follows in third, along with Nigerian Blessing Okagbare in fourth and US bet Sha’Carri Richardson in fifth.
Knott faced Richardson also last month in a women’s 100-meter run at the 2021 Miramar Invitational Athletics meet back in the United States.