Cray wins 7th career gold in SEA Games

HANOI – Ageless Eric Cray extended his reign as the region’s 400m hurdles’ king with another blazing show at the track to clinch his seventh career gold medal in the Southeast Asian Games at the My Dinh National Stadium here on Tuesday.

The 33-year-old Cray, given up for dead by critics for failing to join the Tokyo Olympics team due to injury, was back with a vengeance as he submitted a time of 50.41 seconds to clinch his fifth straight 400m hurdles’ SEAG gold in a reign that began during the 2013 biennial meet in Myanmar.

“Man, it’s a blessing (winning his seventh SEAG gold), I thank God for this, I feel that I still got one more left in me,” said Cray, who had to endure hamstring issues in these games.

Cray’s time fell short of the 50.21 he did in the 2019 Philippine SEA Games, but it was enough to foil the challenge of hometown favorite Cong Lich Quach, who finished with 50.82.

Singapore’s Jun Jie Calvin Quek bagged the bronze with 51.19. The Fil-American Cray holds the SEA Games record of 49.40.

The other Filipino hurdler in Francis Medina ended in fifth with 51.77, just behind Vietnam’s Duc Son Nguyen’s 51.40.

Cray, the 2017 Asian Athletics’ champion, is expected to suit up in the 100 meters on Wednesday to shoot for a personal 8th gold when he runs in the century dash, where was the champion during the 2015 Singapore SEA Games.

“That would be intense, so I will try to rest up tonight,” added Cray, who was also part of the 2019 4×100 mixed relay champion team during the 2019 edition.

Cray’s feat was the fourth gold for the athletics’ contingent in the biennial meet, to go with Ernest John Obiena’s record-smashing performance in pole vault, William Morrison’s shotput triumph and Clinton Kingsley Bautista’s new national record of 13.78 seconds in the 110m hurdles that broke his own 13.97 set during the 2019 SEA Games.

In other results Tuesday, Morrison settled for the bronze with a hurl of 50.44 meters in the men’s discus throw ruled by reigning champion Malaysian Irfan Bin Shamshuddin.

Also late Monday, three athletics’ bets bagged bronze medals, namely Alyana Nicolas in pole vault with a leap of 3.6 meters, Joida Gagnap in the women’s 3000m Steeplechase and Jelly Paragile in the women’s 110m hurdles with a clocking of 0:00:13.720.