CAPAS, Philippines – Eric Cray raced to his fourth straight gold in the men’s 400m hurdles in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games on Tuesday, December 10, at the New Clark City Athletics stadium. 

Cray clocked his season-best of 50.21 seconds to beat Vietnam’s Quach Cong Lich (51.60s), who narrowly edged out Pinoy Francis Medina’s bronze medal time of 51.68s.

Although his time was far from his national record of 48.98s set in Madrid, Spain in 2016, Cray was still “very happy” to bounce back from the “worst race of his career” in the 2018 Asian Games, where he clocked 51.53s.

“I’m so happy. It’s been down the last two years. Like if you follow me, I’ve been clocking a lot of bad times.  I haven’t been running as well, I’ve been down myself,” said Cray after the race. 

Southeast Asia’s hurdle’s king, though, got off to a bad start in the country’s hosting of the regional biennial meet as he was disqualified for a false start in the men’s 100m dash.

As he put his early flop behind, he said it’s good to put himself back on the winning track in the 400m hurdles. 

“Not really redemption for the SEA Games, but it’s redemption for myself and mentally, knowing that I can win,” said Cray. “You know when it’s time to win, I got to prepare my body and I still got it.”  – Rappler.com