MANILA, Philippines - Jessie Lacuna and Jasmine Alkhaldi head the 54-man team competing in the 34th Southeast Asian age-group swimming championships which fires off tomorrow at the Trace Aquatics Center in Los Baños, Laguna.
Lacuna and Alkhaldi, two of the Philippines’ top entries in the first Youth Olympic Games in Singapore this August, will be out to duplicate, if not surpass, the 17 medals, including three golds, the Filipinos won in last year’s edition of the meet in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The three-day competition ending June 5 features eight of the 10 member countries of the Southeast Asian Games.
“Competition is expected to be tough. We are playing catch up to Singapore and Thailand, and now Indonesia – all countries that have strong national youth policies in place, massive government support and have made large investments in sports as a matter of government policy,” said Mark Joseph, president of the Philippine Aquatic Sports Association (PASA).
Aside from the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, also competing are swimmers from Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Brunei.
The Filipinos have the most number of entries with 191 followed by the Thais (190) and Singaporeans (187).
Also in the RP lineup are three other Youth Olympic Games qualifiers in Banjo Borja, Dorothy Hong and Jose Gonzales.
Alkhaldi, Hong and Dhill Anderson Lee accounted for the three gold medals won by the Filipinos last year in Malaysia where they finished fifth overall.