Fil-American sprinter Kristina Knott is looking at her Tokyo Olympics experience as a “glass half-full” as she looks forward to future big races next year.
Knott, who holds two Philippine records, said she was trying to look at the silver lining despite failing to advance to the semifinals of the women’s 200 meters.
She clocked 23.80 seconds in heats, a far cry from her national record of 23.01sec and her season-best of 23.17sec.
“I’m looking at the glass half-full instead of half-empty because at the end of the day, I’m an Olympian. And that’s something that encourages me and something that I can take away from this experience,” Knott said in Wednesday’s online press briefing with Manila-based reporters.
Knott said it obviously didn’t end how she wanted it to, admitting that nerves and the humid temperature at the Olympic Track Stadium during race day took a toll on her performance.
“Just being on the biggest stage like that, any athlete’s gonna be nervous, especially since I’ve never been there before,” she said.
Knott said the nerves hit her coming off the curve during the race, where she felt she “was going backwards.”
“Coming off the curve, that’s where I normally hit it, but when I try to hit it, I was not going anywhere,” she said.
“I was mentally trying my body to say ‘Go! What are you doing?’ but she was not listening to me clearly.”
Knott, a double gold medalist at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, said she hopes to take a month off after the long and arduous season leading to the Olympics before going back to the drawing board.
She is looking forward to competing in elite indoor and outdoor tournaments, the SEA Games and the Asian Games, then hopefully get another shot at the Olympics.
“My motivation is to go to Paris (2024 Olympics),” she said. “That’s gonna be the forefront of my motivation.”
Knott and her coach Roshaan Griffin are scheduled to leave Tokyo Wednesday back to Florida, United States.
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