PB to push for scholarship for boy who swam channel

The Philippine Sports Commission should grant an athletic scholarship to the five-year-old boy who swam across the Mactan Channel recently, said a proposed resolution that the Provincial Board would deliberate this Monday.

PB member Victor Maambong stated in his proposed resolution that swimming boy wonder Justin Daniel Junio has world-class talent that deserves to be developed, nurtured and honed to perfection.

The PSC, especially the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association, is tasked to select and maintain athletes in a training pool for national and international competitions.

The proposal thus calls for the inclusion of Junio to this national pool of athletes, complete with scholarship benefits, Maambong said.

Junio, a boy from Bayambang, Pangasinan, swam last October 8 across the Mactan Channel, from the Lapu-Lapu Ferry dock in Mactan Island to Mandaue City and back, a three-kilometer distance.

He plunged into the relatively rough waters of the channel at 7:38 a.m. and completed his amazing swim at 9:36 a.m., which took him almost two hours but showed no sign of fatigue or exhaustion.

Justin's feat earned him a slot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "youngest swimmer to cross a channel."

He was able to outdo seven-year-old American Braxton Bilbrey, who was recorded as the youngest person to swim across the San Francisco Bay, from Alcatraz Island to the shores of San Francisco City, covering a 2.25-kilometer distance. - Flor Z. Perolina