Thai teen sprint sensation Puripol smashes own 200m record
Thai athlete Puripol Boonson snatched the gold in the men’s 200-metre sprint at the XXXI Qosanov Memorial in Almaty Kazakhstan, om Sunday, breaking Thailand’s national record for the third time, with a time of 20.19 seconds.
The 16-year-old Puripol has been on a record-breaking spree in in the last four months. He broke Rienchai Seehawong’s National Games and Thailand record of 20.69 seconds in March, with a time of 20.58 seconds.
After that, he broke his own record at the 2021 Southeast Asian Games in May in Vietnam with a time of 20.37 seconds.
Puripol’s performance in Almaty has also guaranteed him a place to compete in the 2022 World Athletics Championships that will be held in Eugene, Oregon, the United States from July 15 to 24, as he surpassed the criterion of 20.24 seconds for the event set by World Athletics, the sport’s governing body.
However, Surapong Ariyamongkol, secretary-general of the Athletic Association of Thailand, said that Puripol might have to skip the World Athletics Championships.
He said he preferred that Puripol focus on the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia from August 1 to 6. A final decision will be made later after discussions, he said.
