Kristina Knott misses out on making Tokyo Olympics semis

Kristina Knott's Tokyo Olympic stint quickly came to an end. Times of SEA (file photo)

By Ivan Saldajeno

MANILA--Kristina Knott made a quick exit in her only stint in the Tokyo Olympics after missing out on a spot in the semifinals of the women's 200-meter run at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium.

Knott finished last among five runners who got to run in Heat 7 of the preliminary round on Monday, clocking in at 23.8 seconds.

She missed out on the making the first qualification rule, which is to make the Top 3 in the heat, as she was nearly a second behind third placer Riley Day of Australia.

Day ran the race at 22.94 seconds, which is even faster than Knott's personal best of 23.1.

Knott also missed out on the wildcard qualification given to the three fastest runners outside of the Top 3 per heat quota as Gloria Hooper of Italy and Rafalia Spanoudaki of Greece got the last semifinal rides as they both clocked in at 23.16 seconds.

Because the tie between Hooper, who finished fourth in Heat 1, and Spanoudaki, who was fifth in Heat 2, cannot be broken as they finished the race at exactly the same time even if it was rounded to the nearest thousandth of a second (they finished at 23.151 seconds), the officials decided to give both runners the semifinals berths, increasing the number of semifinalists to 25.

Overall, Knott finished 37th out 42 runners listed for the event.

With Knott's elimination, the Philippines' chances of getting an Olympic medal in athletics now lies on pole vaulter EJ Obiena.

Obiena will vie for a podium finish in the men's pole vault final on Tuesday night also at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium.

Meanwhile, Lorene Bazolo of Portugal and Dalia Kaddari of Italy somehow got lucky as they entered the women's 200-meter semifinals through the Top 3 quota despite three runners running faster than them but missed out on the cut.

Bazolo finished second in Heat 5 with a time of 23.205 seconds, while Kaddari came in third in the same heat with 23.251 seconds.

Kaddari won the photo-finish tiebreaker over Jamaica's Shericka Jackson, who was officially listed at 23.255 seconds.

Jael Bestue of Spain (23.19 seconds), Ana Azevedo of Brazil (23.2), and Phil Healy of Ireland (23.204) actually clocked in faster than Bazolo and Kaddari, but the three aforementioned runners failed to qualify as Bestue was only fourth in Heat 3, Azevedo came in fifth in Heat 1, and Healy placed sixth in Heat 5.

Christine Mboma of Namibia raced the fastest after the preliminary round as she won Heat 4 with a time of 22.11 seconds.

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