Echavez bags 3 swim golds in Singapore meet

SINGAPORE – Palarong Pambansa champion Loren Dale Echavez surpassed three meet records as she won three gold medals at the forefront of the Filipinos’ sterling performance in the Singapore Island Country Club invitational meet yesterday.

Echavez ruled the 200 IM in 2 minutes, 36.78 seconds, the 100m butterfly in 1:09.34 and the 50m freestyle in 28.81 seconds to give the team a tally of 5-6-3 gold-silver-bronze medals going into today’s final day.

Other Filipino medalists in the meet participated in by 150 swimmers from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei and the Philippines were Miguel Thruelen, Jaymar Ibong, Martin Jansen, Jay Ortega, Paula Cayanan, Gertrude Pilapil, Jaymee Ortega, and Camille Thruelen.

The 19 age-group swimmers represented the Aquatic Swimming Association of the Philippines, which ignored threats of suspension by the Amateur Swimming Association of the Philippines for their participation in the meet.

ASAP secretary general Susan Papa said the SICC invited the ASAP to the meet, but said they nearly were barred from competing if not for the intervention of the International Swimming Federation (FINA).

PASA president Mark Joseph, who was in Rome as head of the RP swimming team competing in the world championships, told the Singapore organizers ASAP should not be allowed to participate since they are not members of PASA, citing FINA rules.

Papa, the delegation head, said she got the go signal from FINA officials themselves who said the Singapore meet is not a FINA competition and their participation is in the best interest of the sport.

SICC officials who supported the Philippine delegation were Farida Menon, Liza Khoo, Frank Hohmann, Mr. and Mrs. Schooling and her Singapore colleagues.

Papa said Echavez was also almost stripped of his gold medal in the 2006 Arapura Games in Australia when Joseph called up the organizers to nullify the results of the Philippine participation, also citing FINA ruling on participation by non-members of PASA.