Ryan improves 2nd SEAG swim mark

MANILA, Philippines - Ryan Arabejo continued to make waves at the USA Swimming Speedo Championship Series in Gainesville, Florida yesterday when he broke a second Southeast Asian Games record in two days.

Arabejo, an 18-year-old scholar at Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida, won the silver in the men’s 1500-meter freestyle in 15 minutes 41.41 seconds in another stellar performance.

Arabejo broke the SEA Games record of 15:43.27 set by Thailand’s Torlarp Sethosothore in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 1993, meaning the young Fil-American will be hard to beat in the Laos SEA Games in December.

Arabejo was the gold medalist in the same event during the 2007 SEA Games in Thailand with a time of 15:53.16. His performance in Gainesville chopped 12 seconds of his winning time two years ago.

The other day, Arabejo also shattered the SEA Games record in the 400m freestyle, also previously held by Sethosothore. He clocked 3:57.27, eclipsing the Thai’s record of 3:57.34 and his personal best of 3:58.51.             – Abac Cordero