Mercado, Libat, Cayanan sparkle in Calixto-Rubiano swim meet

MANILA, Philippines - Christen Mercado emerged as quadruple gold medalist while 10-year-old Kyle Libat and 13-year-old Paula Cayanan churned out golden triples in a sparkling show in the rain in the first Mayor Calixto-Emie Calixto-Rubiano swim meet yesterday at the Pasay Swimming Center.

Mercado, 15, topped the 50m backstroke in 28 seconds, butterfly in 27.70, breaststroke in 33.25 and freestyle in 24.90.

Libat outraced all others in his division to win the 50m butterfly (34.72 sec), backstroke (38:18) and breaststroke (43.75), while Cayanan ruled the butterfly (31.78), backstroke (33.15) and freestyle (28:00).

Despite the heavy downpour, more than 600 swimmers, including 43 swimmers seeing action in the Singapore International age group swimming competitions in August, showed up at the meet, serving as 27th leg of the PSL Circuit supported by the Diliman Preparatory School headed by former Sen. Nikki Coseteng.

John Kenneth Dimaculangan, 12-year-old from the Lipa Mediatrix Swim Club, won in the butterfly (31.72) and backstroke (35.50).

Joey Lavina, 13, clocked 34.81 in the breaststroke and 30:00 in the butterfly while EJ Lorbes, 13, submitted a record 26.98 seconds in the 50m freestyle and 29.94 in the butterfly.

Rep. Emie Calixto-Rubiano awarded the medals to the winners.

Also in attendance in the meet were the 43 Singapore-bound swimmers. Thousands of supporters cheered and encouraged the swimmers to perform well at Singapore’s state-of-the-art swimming center where Michael Phelps acclimatized during the Beijing Olympics and Singaporean Joseph Schooling, 15, has trained to qualify for a slot in the London Olympics.