REYNALD MAGALLON

ILAGAN CITY – One-time Olympian Kristina Knott once again banked on her explosive start to remain sprint queen in the ICTSI Philippine Athletics Championships Saturday, March 26, at the City of Ilagan Sports Complex here.

The sprint king title went to Fil-American Nolan Crespo who introduced himself pretty well.

Bolting out of the starting blocks as quick as a scared deer and burning the tracks with her long and powerful strides, Knott topped the century dash in 11.87 seconds as she beat out Malaysian Zaidatul Zulkifli and rising star Lianne Pama of UST in a thrilling finish.

The Malaysian star clocked12.02sec while the UAAP golden girl timed 12.08sec. in a performance that earned her raves from even the foreign coaches.

Knott’s performance was still a far cry from when she bested the 33-year 11.28sec record of legendary Lydia De Vega after clocking 11.27sec in the US three years ago.

Nonetheless, it was still a pretty good run for Knott who had been on the sideline for 11 months due to an injury.

“It was good. I’m super grateful that I was able to run two healthy races since this was my first competition back after my injury. We’re just dusting off some rust because it’s been a long time since I competed,” said Knott.

“For the finals, it was definitely to get out because I was a little bit too passive in the first round. But me and my coach [Joey Scott], we had a plan going in,” she added.

A full-blooded Filipino who was raised in the US, Crespo clocked 10.89 sec. to edge out Amatus Somanghai (10.92sec) of Indonesia and Muhd Noor Firdaus HJ Md Idris (10.98sec).

Crespo revealed that through a former coach of the track team he was able to get in touch with the Patafa and join in the national open as he also hopes to don the PH colors.

“He just said it was an opportunity because I’m still a Filipino, because my parents are in the States and I’m eligible for two citizenship, I had a chance,” shared Crespo.

“I want to run. I want to do better and I want to represent the Philippines. It’s me and for my family as well so here we are now taking the opportunity and doing my best,” he added.