Cray Vows to reclaim seag sprint, 400m titles

CITY OF ILAGAN, Philippines — Aside from scoring a three-peat in his pet 400-meter hurdles event in the coming Southeast Asian Games on home ground, Olympian Eric Cray wants to get back the 100m diadem that slipped from his hands the last time around.

Cray had won the century dash in the 2015 SEAG but settled for second behind Malayian star Kharul Hafiz Jantan two years later in Kuala Lumpur, apparently drained by the tight schedule that forced him to run races barely hours from each other

“The No. 1 goal is to reclaim my title as the fastest man of Southeast Asia, (reset the) PR (personal record), break the SEA Games record and go from there,” said the Fil-Am star, who owns the standing national mark of 10.25 seconds in the centerpiece event.

The 30-year-old Cray anchored the Team Phl-Ilagan City in the 4x100m in the Ayala Philippine Athletics Championships Wednesday night, which won in 40.13.

“It’s a whole different team, the first time we’re running (together)  so there’s a lot of chemistry problems,” said Cray of his team-up with Clinton Bautista, Anfernee Lopena and Jomar Udtohan. “We just want to make sure guys are fit, everybody’s healthy, that’s the biggest part.”

Cray said his preparations for the year’s major competitions are right on track.

“(I’m) still on the build up, the SEA Games is far away, the World Championships is far away, the Asian Championships is pretty far away. I’m a gold medalist in the SEA Games four times so I know what it takes to build up and prepare properly. So that’s all I have to do right now, continue to build up towards the SEA Games, World Championships and be at the top of my game when it’s time to be,” he said.

All roads, of course, lead to the Tokyo Olympics.

“I want to do better than I did last time; the goal is to be in the Olympic finals,” said Cray, who ranked seventh in the semis of 2016 in Rio, his bid stymied by difficulty with hurdle 10 in that race. 

“It (Olympics) is a year and a half way; I still have a lot of time. I feel like I’m on the right path; I’m going to keep on training, working hard and God willing, when the Olympics comes, I’m at the top of my game,” he added.