Rio-bound Cray shows marked improvement in World Tour

MANILA, Philippines -- Olympics-bound Fil-Am hurdler Eric Shaun Cray continued to show marked improvement after coming through with a solid performance in the World Tour in Karlsruhe, Germany recently.

Cray, the country's lone representative to this year's Rio de Janerio Olympics thus far after making the 400-meter standard in a meet in Los Angeles, United States last year, closed in on the Southeast Asian Games 100-m dash record after he clocked 6.60 seconds, according to pinoyathletics.info.

Cray actually finished fifth behind eventual winner Michael Rodgers of the US with a clocking of 6.52 and 2003 century dash world champion Kim Collins of St. Kitts and Nevis with a time of 6.54.

Americans Trell Kimmons and Joseph Morris wound up third and fourth in 6.58 each.

Cray finished ahead of Dutch Churandy Martina, who made the finals of both the 100-m and 200-m in the quadrennial event in 2008 in Beijing, China and 2012 in London, England.

What's impressive, according to pinoyathletics.info, about Cray's performance was that he improved on his 6.66-second showing in New Mexico last month while inching closer to breaching his SEAG and Phl record of 6.57.

Cray, who is scheduled to compete in the Asian Indoors in Doha, Qatar this month, is using these races to prime up for the biggest race of his life--the Olympics.