Texas-based Eric Shauwn Cray swept to 100m victory at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games on Tuesday as he led a Filipino-American assault on the athletics competition.
Cray, who will represent the Philippines at 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in the 400m hurdles, switched to 100m but easily won with a personal best of 10.25sec.
The Philippines’ California-born Kayla Richardson, 17, edged Thailand’s Tassaporn Wannakit in the women’s 100m, and Caleb Stuart smashed the Games’ men’s hammer record to take gold.
Cray, 26, dominated the men’s 100m, topping the heats and then winning the final by 0.2sec from Indonesia’s Boby Yaspi, with Thai defending champion Jirapong Meenapra fifth.
Some critics question the Philippines’ policy of recruiting overseas talent with Filipino heritage, but Cray said it was an honour to represent his mother’s country.
“I just feel that if you have Filipino blood and you cherish the traditions of the Philippines, you know it’s a great honour for me to be able to represent and I am just happy that they allow me to,” he told reporters.
“My mother is Filipino and she was born in Olongapo and I was raised there for a little while and then moved to the States.
“So I just enjoy being able to represent my country, my mother’s country, which makes me proud and I hope I can make them proud as well.”
Richardson, who also has a Filipino mother, has only visited the Philippines once on holiday but she also said she was proud to represent her country.
The teenager had an anxious wait while officials examined footage of the 100m finish before awarding her gold, a whisker ahead of Thai runner Tassaporn.
“I am so amazed, this is what I came here to do and I am glad I was able to get it done,” Richardson said.
“It’s my first time here and I am younger than most of these girls and I am just very proud of myself that I can represent my country.”
She added: “Philippines is coming up, let me just say that.”
Earlier, fellow Filipino-American Stuart beat the Games hammer record by more than three metres (10 feet) to emphatically win gold.
Stuart’s 65.63m was more than half-a-metre off his personal best, but still obliterated the 2013 record of 62.23 set by Thailand’s Tantipong Phetchaiya, who took silver with 62.12.
Follow up: Cray added to his many accomplishments by breaking the Southeast Asian Games record for the men’s 400-meters hurdles competition at the National Stadium in Singapore on Wednesday, June 10. Cray finished with a time of 49.40 seconds, beating Cong Lich Quach of Vietnam’s 50.29 output to also win the Philippines their 19th gold medal in the SEA Games, which puts them in 5th place overall. Andrian of Indonesia, which drops to 6th place, came in at third with a time of 51.36. The previous record, set by Thailand’s Chanon Keanchan in 1995, was 49.76. (Rappler)
Absolutely none of them look Filipino LOL pretty much you can replace the word ‘Filipino’ in the title with any nationality and it will be the same.
I see Filipinos daily and these are NOT Filipinos at all.
And what the hell do Pilipinxs look like hm? We aren’t even a monolithic group.
Do you know exactly how many ethnic groups exist in the Philippines and because of it there are so many different phenotypes and characteristics from ethnic group to ethnic group that we don’t all look alike?
They are half. They are still fuckin Pilipinx regardless of what they look like.
Oh and let me just ask you this.
What about these beautiful people here?
What.
Let me guess. They don’t “look Pilipinx” to you either do they? Why? Because they look Black? They have dark brown/black skin? Nappy hair? Curly hair?
Well guess what? They are the original inhabitants of what is now called the Philippines. They are the original, not the Austronesian groups that came later on.
And yes. They are Pilipinx.
And guess what? Even those who are not Aeta, Agta, Ayta, Ati, etc. there are those if you look at them you wouldn’t think they were Pilipinx because your perception and view of Pilipinxs are those who have straight black hair, light to dark brown skin, and probably looks like this.
Well guess what. See this picture?
This is my family right here, all proud Akean. Do I look Pilipinx to you? Probably not and I get it a lot even among other Pilipinxs. But that’s because I don’t fit your “criteria” and typical view of what we are supposedly suppose to look like, whatever the fuck that is suppose to mean.
See that awesome woman in the middle with the sunglasses? Yes. That is what everyone in my moms side of the family has and looks like. Extremely curly hair. She is 100% Akean along with everyone else on that side minus my mom and her siblings who are half and the only difference is that my mom has light skin but the curly hair trait is still dominant. By looking at my Tita you would think she was Polynesian or something. In the Philippines, people like you call people who look like my moms family, as black because they are much darker and have really curly hair not your typical straight, wavy hair.
And what about these girls who are Manobo, an indigenous group in Mindanao? Do they look like what you “view as Pilipinx”?
We.
Do.
Not.
All.
Look.
Alike.
Apparently you may be surrounded by Pilipinxs every day, but you don’t know a damn thing about our history, our diversity both within the more than 100 ethnic groups in the country and those who are mixed.
Are you Pilipinx? Well if you are then you surely don’t know anything about being Pilipinx and those mixed Pilipinxs athletes above competing in the SEA games surely have more pride and knowledge of who we are than you fuckin do.
theluminouscosmos 