Kristina Knott’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic campaign came to an end in a flash on Monday (August 2) at the Olympic Stadium.
In the women’s 200-meter dash, the Filipino-American sprinter finished fifth and last in Heat 7 with a time of 23.80.
Only the top three competitors from each heat advance to the semifinals, as the rank world no. 113 Knott placed 0.86 second behind third-place finisher Riley Day of Australia, who ran a 22.94.
Jenna Prandini of the United States took first place in Heat 7 with a time of 22.56 seconds, followed by Gina Bass of Gambia with a time of 22.74 seconds.
Twenty-four runners will advance to the semifinals — the top three in each of the seven heats plus the next three best times.
Knott wowed the Filipino fans by breaking the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games record in the women’s 200m event twice in one day during the country’s staging of the 2019 SEA Games.
Knott has been competing in Olympic qualification competitions for the Philippines since the 2018 Asian Games.
She qualified via the universality rule and battled COVID-19 after booking a ticket to the quadrennial meet.
Knott, who now owns the Philippine record in the race with a run of 23.01 seconds, is the latest Filipino athlete to be eliminated from the Tokyo Olympics, which has been the country’s most successful Olympics to date.