The 18-member Philippine Team scooped a total of 16 medals, including two golds and lots of personal bests in the recent 45th Southeast Age Group Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia.
For the first time in years, a 16-year-old diver in Joseph Reynado stood up on the podium with a bronze medal during the awarding ceremony for the Boys’ Platform event (16-18).
It was a productive campaign by a squad formed through intensive national tryouts by Philippine Aquatics, Inc Secretary General Batangas 1st District Rep. Eric Buhain, who proudly congratulated the young swimmers for their achievements.
“President Miko (Vargas), myself, and the entire Board of Trustees of Philippine Aquatics, Inc. are very happy about the achievements of our team. Our medal success rate is 77% because of 17 medals from 18 swimmers and 4 divers. That is a big leap from last year’s 24% medal success rate with 24 medals coming from 99 swimmers,” said Buhain, a two-time Olympian and Philippine Sports Hall-of-Famer.
“We hope to inspire more Filipino age-group athletes to go for medal standards for the 46th edition which Thailand will host at the end of October 2024. It can be done, we have proven it! These medal winners came from all over the country,” added Buhain.
Jennuel Booh De Leon and Arabella Nadeen Taguinota led the charge for the Filipinos, dominating their respective events on the second day of the three-day competition, which attracted top junior swimmers from eight countries.
De Leon, 16, the pride of Aklan, claimed the gold in the boys’ 16-18 class 50m butterfly, clocking 25.40 seconds over Malaysian swimmer Bernie Elle Yang Lee (25.49) and Thanaseat Thanonthisitsakul of Thailand (25.72).
The 14-year-old Taguinota from Pasig was the fastest in the girls’ 14-15 100m breaststroke, with a time of 1:13.40, beating Vietnamese Thuy Hien Nguyen (1:14.07) and Natthakita Leekitchakorn of Thailand (1:14.50).
Last year’s gold medalist in the 13-under class in Jamesray Ajido from Quezon City proved to be a force in the boys’ 14-15 category, bagging three silver medals in the 50m butterfly (25.93), 100m fly (57.12) and 100m backstroke (1:00.68), while Estefano Ramos gave the country’s fourth silver, clocking 2:10.39 in the boys’ 16-18 200m Back.
“It was a success despite us sending a small contingent. Most of the swimmers got their personal bests. We were solid and everybody was in high spirits,” said head coach Ramil Ilustre, the third generation of the noted Ilustre clan in local swimming.
De Leon also bagged a bronze in the 50m freestyle (24.35), while fast-rising Aishel Evangelista collected three in the boys’ 13-under 200m free (2:05.12), 200m Individual Medley (2:19.83) and 400m IM (4:56.01).
Other bronze medalists were Clark Ken Apuada in the boys’ 14-15 50m free (24.64); Jalil Taguinod in the boys’ 16-8 50m breast (29.99); Ivo Enot in the 100m back (59.21); Peter Cyrus Dean in the 50m back (27.38) and Mishka Sy in the girls’ 16-18 200m IM (2:23.29).
