KUALA LUMPUR: The tight schedule would not be a barrier for 100m defending champion Eric Cray of the Philippines to retain his 100m and 400m hurdles crowns at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games (KL2017) on Tuesday.
The Philippines athletics Team Manager Sean Guevara said despite both the events scheduled on the same day, with about an hour difference, the Filipino-American would be able to showcase his speed to claim the gold at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil.
“We have requested the organisers to change, but they declined. I think no problem for him to run on both events on the same day, because he has the power and stamina to do it. He will fly straight from Texas, United States after finishing his training with his coach there,” he told reporters after the KL2017 athletics team managers meeting here, today.
On Tuesday, Eric would be running in the 100m heats at 3.30pm, followed by his pet event 400m hurdles heats at 4pm, while the finals for 400m hurdles and 100m would be at 8.20pm and 9.40pm respectively.
Sean said Eric who had featured in the recent London World Championships in the 400m hurdles is also listed in the Philippines 4x100m and 4x400m relay events.
The 400m hurdles Asian Champion bagged two gold medals at the Singapore SEA Games two years ago, after setting a Games record of 49.40s in the 400m hurdles and a personal best of 10.25s in the 100m.
Though chances are high to retain the 400m hurdles gold, the 28-year-old who has a seasons best of 10.27s, is expected to be challenged by Malaysian sprint sensation Khairul Hafiz Jantan who has a personal best of 10.18s while 2013 champion Jirapong Meenapra from Thailand has clocked 10.31s.
Sean said the 2019 SEA Games host has set a five-gold target for track and field events, scheduled from Aug 22-26. — Bernama