Jessie King Lacuna proved he is the heir apparent to top Filipino swimmer Miguel Molina after breaking the Philippine record in the 200-meter freestyle in Day 2 of the 2010 Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships at the Singapore School Sports.
The tournament serves as a Youth Olympic Games qualifying event with the 16-year-old Lacuna also surpassing the FINA YOG “A" Standard time.
Lacuna swam to a time of one minute and 50.90 seconds to break the Philippine record of 1:51.75 established by Molina in the 2007 Thailand Southeast Asian Games. The new mark also surpassed the FINA YOG “A" Standard time of 1:52.53.
The Bulacan-born Lacuna’s time is faster by more than two seconds to Mark Chay’s 1:53:78 record during the 1999 edition of the annual swim meet.
Lacuna made it to the 200m finals Friday night with the Filipino tanker the heavy favorite to win the gold medal since closest rival Haruki Washio of Japan had the second best time of 1:54.06.
Jasmine Alkhaldi also clinched the YOG “B" qualifying standard in the 200m free girls division with a new Philippine 15-17 Age Group time at 2:04.98.
Akiko Thompson held the old Philippine record of 2:07.23 while the YOG “B" Standard time is 2:06.64.
Whitney Dy and Kimberley Uy also saw action in the said tournament clocking in at 2:21.17 and 2:22.68 also in the 200m freestyle girls division.
Philippine Amateur Swimming Association (PASA) president Mark Joseph praised Lacuna's efforts hoping that his new time would be enough to earn an invitation from FINA to be part of the Singapore Youth Olympics in August.
But even if Lacuna fails to advance to the 1st Youth Olympics, Joseph sees a bright future for Philippine swimming especially in the upcoming Guangzhou Asian Games.
Lacuna is a late addition to the men's relay team and Joseph believes his inclusion improved the country’s chances to win a medal in the 2010 Asiad.
“When Molina set the national record, he was 21 then. Now we have a 16-years old (Lacuna) breaking a national record and speaks well of our campaign in the Asian Games especially in the relay events," said Joseph. – GMANews.TV
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