ERIC Cray failed to recover from a false start and bowed out early in the world athletics championships late Sunday afternoon (Sunday morning in Europe), finishing 34th overall in the men’s 400-meter hurdles with a time of 50.27 seconds at the National Athletics Center in Budapest, Hungary.
A six-time Southeast Asian Games hurdles king, Cray, running in lane 6, was given a yellow card for a false start and seemed shaken after that, winding up seventh in the second heat where the top four entries advanced to the next round.
Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands topped the heat in 48.47 seconds, followed by Estonian Rasmus Magi (48.58), American Trevor Bassit (48.73) and Kenyan Wiseman Were Mukhobe (49.10), who all advanced to the semifinals Sunday night.
Cray is bidding to make his second Olympic appearance in Paris next year after competing for the country in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
To do that, Cray must continue competing in World Athletics-sanctioned events in the hope of making the qualifying standard or piling up ranking points to seal a ticket to the 2024 Sumer Games before the June 30, 2024 cut-off date.
