Fil-American standout Remedy Rule swam against members of the Tokyo-bound US national team and held her ground as she continued her search for Olympic qualifying slots and made herself eligible for a third one.
The 24-year-old Rule surpassed the Olympic Standard time of 59.56 seconds when she finished second in the B-finals and 10th overall women’s 100-meter butterfly event of the TYR Pro Swim Series in Mission Viejo, California over the weekend.
Rule, who joined with James Deiparine, went below the OST-B time of 59.66 seconds, in an event which saw Rio Olympics veteran Kelsi Dahlia claiming the crown in 58.11 seconds.
Dahlia, who placed fourth in the Rio Games, was ahead of Beryl Gastaldello and US national team member Katie McLaughlin, who were second and third, respectively, with sub-58 second times.
Earlier, Rule missed the OST in the preliminaries when she checked in at 59.7 seconds.
Because of her 100-m butterfly showing, Rule now has shot at earning slots in three events.
She had already hit the OST-B times in the 200-meter butterfly and the 100-meter freestyle when Rule saw action for the Philippines in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.
Following the end of the qualification period, FINA, the world’s governing body for swimming, will assess the number of athletes who achieved the OQT, the number of relay-only swimmers and the number of universality places, before inviting athletes with OST to fulfill the total quota of 878. Additionally, OST places will be distributed by event according to the position of the FINA World Rankings during the qualifying deadline.
The qualifying time standards must be obtained in the World Championships, Continental Championships, Continental Qualification Events, National Championships and Trials, or International Competitions approved by FINA in the period between 1 March 2019 to 27 June 2021.
Entered in four events, Rule once again hit the OST in the women’s 200-meter butterfly and in the 100-meter freestyle, each of which she surpassed for the second time since the biennial meet in December 2019.
This time, Rule finished fifth overall in 2:11.75, her time below the OST mark of 2:12.28, in the women’s 200-meter butterfly.
Seventeen-year-old Katie Crom touched the pad first in 2:10.38, to bag her first professional win, with 18&Under swimmer Lillie Nordmann going in at 2:10.62 to finish second.
Rule missed the cut in the 200-meter prelims after making it to 20th place with her 2:00.98 clocking.
In this event, five-time Olympic gold medallist Katie Ledecky claimed the gold in 1:54.40 to tie Allison Schmitt’s 2012 US Open Record for fastest time ever swim on American soil.
According to the event’s official website, it was Ledecky’s second-fastest 200-m freestyle of her career, behind her 1:53.73 at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Ledecky has won the 200-m freestyle in 19 of her last 20 TYR Pro Swim Series competitions.
In the women’s women’s 100-meter freestyle prelims, Rule landed 15th overall with 55.83 seconds, breaching the OST mark of 56.01 seconds.
In the finals, Rule submitted a clocking of 56.04 seconds.
Two-time Olympic medallist Abby Weitzeil was first in the women’s A final and she was in front of five US National Team members with a time of 53.68 seconds, considered as a new world record, which bested the previous mark of 53.94 she set in the previous night’s preliminaries.
