Mighty cray nails six-peat fil-am runner averts shutout for team Philippines

PHNOM PENH – There’s a collective sigh of relief that accompanied the cheers as Fil-Am hurdler Eric Cray did Eric Cray things in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games here.

Cray reaffirmed his status as the undisputed king of the men’s 400-meter hurdles as he dispatched all threats to his throne with a 50.03-second sizzler at the Morodok Techo National Stadium yesterday.

Thanks to Cray, now an owner of an eye-popping six-peat in the biennial conclave, Team Philippines breached the gold medal column on another agonizingly slow-moving grind. This was the second straight day for the Filipinos to chalk up a one-gold collar after a bountiful six last Tuesday.

Cray’s great exploits added glitter to the silver of fellow hurdles specialist Robyn Brown, fencer Noelito Jose (men’s individual epee), swimming’s Thanya dela Cruz, Jasmine Al-Khaldi, Miranda Renner and Teia Salvino (women’s 4x100 medley relay), Sarah Dequinan (women’s heptathlon), and Sibol’s Mobile Legends: Bangbang women’s team; and the bronzes from cyclist Ronald Oranza (men’s road criterium), fencer Jylyn Nicanor (women’s individual sabre), wushu bets Sandrex Gainsan (men’s jianshu + Qiangshu) and Jennifer Kilapio (sanda women’s 48kg), Al-Khaldi (women’s 50m butterfly) and athletics’ Mark Harry Diones (men’s triple jump).

As of 9 p.m. (Manila time), the 840-strong contingent backed by the Philippine Sports Commission had 27 golds, 51 silvers and 65 bronzes in its pocket.

The Pinoy aces found themselves down by notch at sixth, overtaken by Singapore’s 35-27-49. Vietnam kept pole position with 57-56-70 with host Cambodia (56-44-55), Thailand (54-39-58), Indonesia (42-34-59) occupying second to fourth spots.

It was gloomy on a sunny day for Team Philippines as its fighters on different fronts missed out on the suddenly hard-to-come-by mints.

Until Cray took to the starting blocks at 4:20 p.m.

Shaking off the effects of sports hernia that bothered him lately, the Rio Olympian navigated the course and cleared the 10 hurdles with precision and speed to leave the challengers behind for Gold No. 6 in his pet event.

Thailand’s Natthapon Dansungnoen placed second-best in 50.73 while Singapore’s Calvin Ouek Jun Jie came in third in 50.75.

“I was expecting it. That’s what I trained for and I expected nothing less,” said Cray, still catching his breath while talking to mediamen and gamely posing for photos with six fingers raised.

Cray chopped off two seconds from his 52.73 clocking in the morning’s qualifying heats but missed the 49.40 SEAG record, which he set in 2015.

“I’m going for the record but my body’s not ready to get there yet. So I wanted to just try to run the pace of the record and hold on as long as I can,” he said. “I executed the race plan.”

Cray joined record-breaking and three-peat-winning pole vaulter EJ Obiena and first-time long jump champ Janry Ubas in athletics’ league of gold medalists in the country known as “The Kingdom of Wonder.”

The former Asian ruler may go for more in the 100 meters and 4x400m relay.

“I’m still listed in the 100. I didn’t pull out and then maybe 4x4. But I have to see how I feel tonight (last night) and tomorrow (today) because that’s pretty taxing, running two rounds in one day and coming off injury,” he said.

Brown had a chance to make it a sweep for the Pinoy hurdlers but her 56.510 effort in the finale was good only for No. 2 behind Vietnam’s Thi Nguyen Huyen (56.290).

Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Carlo Paalam and Paul Julyfer Bascon followed seven other teammates to the boxing finals after hammering smashing victories in yesterday’s semis.

Paalam overwhelmed Timor Leste’s Edegar Da Silva, 5-0, to get a shot at the men’s bantamweight gold while Bascon qualified for the light-welterweight finale by knocking out Cambodia’s Touch Davit in the second round.

Together with flyweight Rogen Ladon, featherweight Ian Clark Bautista, lightweight Norlan Petecio, light heavy John Marvin, women’s featherweight Nesthy Petecio, lightweight Riza Pasuit and women’s flyweight Irish Magno, the two will shoot for nine golds this weekend.

Heavyweight Markus Cezar Tongco failed to join the rush to the finals as he bowed to Vietnam’s Manh Cuong Nguyen via RSC (Referee Stopped Contest) to settle for the bronze.

The Philippine volleybelles, meanwhile, advanced to the semifinals after scoring a 25-17, 25-14, 25-13 victory over Singapore.