Hoffman, Brown make 400m hurdles’ finals

HANGZHOU, China — Filipino-Americans Lauren Hoffman and Robyn Brown qualified in the finals of the 400m hurdles in the 19th Asian Games athletic competitions at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre here on Monday.

The 24-year-old Hoffman finished second in Heat 2 with a clocking of 57.61, behind only Brunei's Oluwakemi Mujidat Adekoya (57.17).

"My goal is to win. I think there is a chance, I definitely want a medal. I think I'm very capable of a medal. I know winning will be hard, but I definitely will try to win. I know I have it in me," said Hoffman, who is also entered in the 4×400 relay team with Brown on Wednesday.

"Plan is to get out hard for the first 200, and just hold on, dig deep with everything I have left."

Meanwhile, the 29-year-old Brown, the 2023 Asian Championships' 400m hurdles champion, with a 57.50 time, barely made it to the finals with her fifth-place finish in Heat 1, where she clocked 58.34 seconds.

"It's been a long season. It's been definitely fun, I had a lot of achievements this year. Looking to see myself in the podium," said Brown.

Hoffmann and Brown will face off with Japan's Ami Yamamoto (personal best 56.06), Kazakhstan's Adelina Zems (PB 57.16), Brunei's Adekoya (PB 53.09) and Aminat Oluwaseun Yusuf Jamal (PB 55.12), India's Vithya Ramraj (PB 55.42) and China's Mo Jiadie (PB 54.89) at in the championship run at 7:20 p.m. on Tuesday.

Six-time SEA Games' 400m hurdles champion Eric Cray was not as fortunate to make it to the finals, though, as he emerged fifth in Heat 3 with a clocking of 50.24.

Meanwhile, Kristina Knott finished 6th with a time of 23.79 seconds in the 200m finals won by

Singapore's Veronica Shanti Pereira (23.03), with China's Li Yuting (23.28) and Brunei's Edidiong Ofonime Odiong (23.48) placing second and third, respectively.

John Tolentino, on the other hand, placed out of the podium with a 4th best clocking of 13.62 seconds in the finals of the 110m hurdles won by Kuwait's Yaquob Alyouha, who timed 13.41.

Japan's Shyunya Takayama and China's Xu Zhuoyi ranked second and third, respectively.