KRISTINA Knott tested positive for COVID-19 on the day of the confirmation that she is set to compete in the Tokyo Olympics, the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association revealed on Wednesday.
The Patafa said during a hastily-called press conference that the 25-year-old Knott contracted the coronavirus while preparing for the competition.
Knott, who is in Sweden, does not have COVID-19 symptoms, according to Patafa.
She gained an Olympic berth via ‘universality place’ in the women’s 200-meter run.
The 25-year-old Knott won two gold medals in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, and recently set a new 100-meter Philippine record, clocked 11.27 seconds in a track meet in Des Moines, Iowa to beat the 11.28 mark set by Lydia De Vega in 1987.
“Kristina contracted COVID and she was tested positive yesterday hours before her second to the last competition,” said Patafa president Philip Ella Juico.
“She is not yet in Japan. This is not the start of the Olympics. She has about a month to recover from this,” Juico said.
“From our Team Philippines doctors, they said that in any event, it should be okay as long as they passed the 96 and 72-hour RT PCR test which should take place four days before their intended departure for Japan. Matagal pa ’yun,” said Patafa communications and marketing director Edward Kho.
Coach Rhosaan Griffin said they were surprised Knott tested positive despite practicing health standards in training and in competition.
Griffin said Knott underwent a retest, which also turned positive.
“We took the test on Monday when we arrived. We got the results back yesterday three hours before we were about to compete. She had no symptoms. She is fully-vaccinated. There hasn’t been any lags in training or any signs that anything was going on with her. None of us contracted it. I’m the only other one that is fully vaccinated. So it was kinda surreal. We thought it was a joke,” said Griffin.
Griffin also said Knott is in isolation, with doctors believing that the Fil-American athlete may have contracted the Delta COVID-19 strain.
“It is a wake-up call for people to realize that this thing is very, very real. We take extreme caution. We take major precautions. We are not around with a lot of people and we haven’t been around a lot of people this entire season … It’s real thing and people just need to be aware that this is what happened to us. So be careful out there,” said Griffin.
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