Lacuna seeks more dry-land training

LONDON – After failing to even duplicate his Philippine record, swimmer Jessie Khing Lacuna charged his disappointing 36th place finish in the 200-meter freestyle to experience at the Aquatics Center here Sunday morning and promised to be back stronger in the next Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

What soured his chances to survive the second of six heats was lack of dry-land training. Lacuna hit the nail on the head when he explained his faltering finish to clock 1:52.91, a shade over his national record of 1:50.9.

“I overdid it at the start,” said the 18-year-old native of Pulilan, Bulacan. “I did 53.82 seconds in the first 100 meters when I usually do 58.5. I began to cramp in the last 50 meters then my legs tightened up in the final 25. I was dying out there. But it was an experience of a lifetime. I told myself no matter what happens, I’ve already won because I qualified for the Olympics and only the top swimmers make it. It’s hard to get in. I was overwhelmed. It’s not easy to control the feeling of excitement.”

Lacuna said as a rookie Olympian, he expected to be jittery. He couldn’t be satisfied with his time because his goal was to reset his Philippine record. “In swimming, you have to continue working hard to bring down your time,” he said. “Look at Michael Phelps, he didn’t even win a medal in the 400-meter individual medley. Now that I’ve experienced the Olympics, I want to make sure I qualify for Rio and do a better job. I realize I’ve got to do more dry-land training out of the pool like floor exercises, doing weights and others. Maybe, I’ll add a few more inches by taking more vitamins because it helps if you’re tall.”

With his disqualification, Lacuna said he won’t just turn tourist. “I want to learn from the world’s best swimmers,” he said. “I’ll ask the top swimmers for advice on technique and training. Of course, I also plan to see the sights of London. We’re booked to go back home the day after the closing ceremony.”

Lacuna, a high school graduate of Trace College in Los Baños, said he’s in the process of choosing where to enrol. “My preference is to study in Australia where they have a very good swimming program,” he said. “If that can’t be arranged, I’d like to study in the US. I could also enrol in a Philippine university with a swimming varsity.”

Lacuna was sixth in his heat of seven and outsped only Puerto Rico’s Raul Martinex Colomer. In all, Lacuna was faster over only four swimmers. The 40th placer Mads Glaesner of Denmark was scratched from starting. China’s Yang Sun registered the fastest clocking at 1:46.24.

Lacuna garnered six gold medals at the recent Philippine National Games and stamped his class as the country’s No. 1 swimmer. He started swimming at three and joined his first international competition at 13. On a typical day, Lacuna is in the pool six hours, three in the morning and three in the afternoon. That was his routine six days a week in the run-up to London.

“I really wanted to break my Philippine record in London,” said the two-time Southeast Asian Games veteran. “I also wanted to enter the last 16. After the Olympics, I plan to work on my short course technique.” None of Lacuna’s relatives flew over to witness his performance. His father Marcelo owns a retail store in Bulacan and mother Corazon takes care of the house. The third of five children, Lacuna has two brothers Jay-R, 28, and Billy, 27, who were former UST swimmers. Another brother Dexter, 14, studies at Marcelo del Pilar High School and sister Anselma, 11, is elementary.    

Lacuna said in London, he’ll try to meet US swimming sensation Ryan Lochte, one of his idols along with swimming legend Eric Buhain and 2008 Olympic double gold medalist Park Tae Hwan of Korea. His all-time favorite athletes are Phelps and Rafael Nadal of tennis.

The delegation’s only other swimmer is Jasmine Alkhaldi, a 19-year-old University of Hawaii athletic scholar who is half-Saudi Arabian. National swimming coach Pinky Brosas, who competed at the 1972 Munich Games, said his focus is set on the next Olympics with Lacuna and Alkhaldi more experienced. Brosas, 56, has been a coach since 1975 and a national coach since 1987. He mentored Buhain and Akiko Thompson at the 1988 Olympics and Miguel Molina in Beijing four years ago. Brosas said his interest is on boys in the 12-13 age bracket. He intends to bring his students to the Center for Excellence at Trace College where the environment is controlled. Over the past six years, Brosas has been connected with Trace.