Lacuna, Alkhaldi rip RP marks

MANILA, Philippines - Jessie Lacuna and Jasmine Alkhaldi swam in record-breaking fashion yesterday, getting the Filipino youth swimmers to a swashbuckling start in the 2010 Singapore national age-group swimming championships in Singapore.

Swimming president Mark Joseph said Lacuna, 16, registered 1:50.90 in 200m freestyle, shattering Miguel Molina’s national record of 1:51.75, while Alkhaldi clocked 2:04.98 in the distaff side, eclipsing Akiko Thomson’s national 15-17 age-group mark of 2:07.23 set almost two decades ago.

Lacuna achieved Youth Olympic Games A standard time for his effort while Alkhaldi earned YOG B qualifying time for her feat in the swimfest serving as a qualifier for the coming YOG.

Other Filipinos entered in the Singapore meet are Banjo Borja, Jose Gonzalez, Whitney Dy and Kimberley Uy.

Philippine swimming president Mark Joseph expects more achievements for the RP tankers in the YOG qualifying event.

Lacuna, coached by Carlos Brosas at PASA’s Center of Excellence in Los Baños, has been improving since his stint with the RP team in the Laos SEA Games. He was a silver medalist in the 200m freestyle in the last SEAG.

Earlier this year, he topped the 200-m freestyle event with a time of 1:52.51 in the 16-year-old category in the New South Wales swim meet in Australia.