Athletics Turn To Show Off, Alvin Tehupeiory Appears In Heat 3 Of The Tokyo Olympics

Indonesian women's sprinter Alvin Tehupeiory (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Indonesian women's sprinter Alvin Tehupeiory will start his struggle in the women's 100 meters in the Tokyo Olympics athletics at the Olympic Stadium, Friday, July 30.

Launching Antara, Alvin will start the preliminary round by being in lane 7 heat 3 which is scheduled to start racing at 07:14 WIB. Based on the list of participants, Alvin is the only sprinter from Asia out of a total of nine names who joined in heat 3.

Alvin's competitors are mostly from African and Middle Eastern countries. Referring to the rules of the Tokyo Olympics, Alvin must at least finish in the top 3 to secure a ticket to the next round.

Alvin currently has a personal best of 11.64 seconds when he competed in the 2019 National Championship. With that time, the sprinter from Maluku should have escaped the qualifying round.

Because, from the personal data of the best participants listed on the Tokyo Olympics website, Alvin is the second best in heat 3. While the first position is Joella Lloyd from Antigua and Barbuda with 11.19 seconds.

There is no medal target for athletics. But Alvin is expected to break the national record of 11.56 seconds which has been held for 22 years by Irene Truitje Joseph.

Alvin appeared at the Tokyo Olympics after being selected via a wildcard. She replaces the women's 100 meter hurdler Emilia Nova who was previously projected to fill the position. However, Emilia failed to go to Tokyo due to a back injury.

Alvin is considered worthy of the opportunity to appear in Tokyo because he is the national record holder for the 200 meter run with a time of 23.76 seconds when competing at the 2019 National Championship in Cibinong, Bogor.

He broke Irene Truitje Joseph's record which had lasted since 1999 with a time of 23.86 seconds. Now, Alvin hopes to break Irene's record again in the women's 100 meters.

In the women's 100 meters, it is predicted that it will be difficult for Alvin to compete considering that his time is far below the world champion runners who are dominated by Jamaica and the United States. They have a record time of under 11 seconds.

For example, runners from Jamaica and gold medalists at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah who recorded best times of 10.63 seconds and 10.71 seconds, respectively.

In addition, there were also Shericka Jackson (10.77 seconds), US runner Sha'Carri Richardson (10.72 seconds), and British runner Dina Asher-Smith (10.91 seconds).