MANILA – Filipino-American athlete Robyn Brown cruised to a gold medal finish in the women’s 400m hurdles at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok, Thailand Saturday.

Brown eclipsed two Japanese track athletes and crossed the finish line in 57.50 seconds to become the first Filipina to win the gold in the regional games in 14 years.

The last time a Pinay reached the top podium was in 2009 in China when Marestella Torrres-Sunang took the gold in the women's long jump.

Eri Utsunomiya settled for silver, clocking in 57.73, while her compatriot Ami Yamamoto was 0.07 second slower – enough for the bronze medal.

Brown’s feat, however, could not be duplicated by other Filipino athletes in the regional games as Sarah Dequinan ended in fifth place in the women’s heptathlon with 5446 points.

Uzbekistan’s Ekaterina Voronina clinched the gold with 6098 points followed by Swapna Barman of India and Yuki Yamasaki of Japan.

Eric Cray, on the other hand, failed to replicate his golden performance in the men’s 400m hurdles in the 2017 Asian championships.

Cray finished the tournament in sixth place, timing in 49.76 seconds, behind eventual winner Bassem Hemeida of Qatar, who registered the fastest time at 48.64 seconds.

Janry Ubas also missed the podium in the men’s long jump, placing seventh in the competition. Ubas landed at the 7.98m mark to fall behind six other competitors, who all crossed the eight-meter mark.

Chinese Taipei’s Yu-Tang Lin topped the event as he reached 8.40 meters to beat India’s entry by 0.03 margin.

In the mixed 4x400m relay, the Philippine team ranked sixth as Frederick Ramirez, Jessel Lumapas, Michael del Prado, Maureen Emily Schrijvers clocked in 3:22.53 in the event.

India lorded the contest with 3:14.70 followed by Sri Lanka (3:15.41) and Japan (3:15.71).