By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Xiandi Chua booked a ticket to the world short course championships in the women’s 200-meter backstroke in the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup 2024 in Singapore over the weekend.
Chua clocked 2 minutes and 9.71 seconds to eclipse the Qualifying B standard of 2:09.93 in her event for next month’s worlds in Budapest, Hungary.
Chua, however, failed to advance to the finals after finishing ninth overall in the heats out of 22 tankers, just a hairline from last qualifier Xeniya Ignatova of Kazakhstan, who timed 2:09.32.
American Regan Smith, who topped the heats, eventually captured the gold medal with a new world record of 1:58.83. Anastasiya Shkurdai (2:01.63) and Australia’s Iona Anderson (2:01.98) grabbed silver and bronze, respectively.
Meanwhile, Jasmine Mojdeh finished 15th in the women’s 100m butterfly with a time of 1:03.51.
Metin Mahmutoglu (24.11sec) and Joshua Ang (24.12sec), for their part, landed 24th and 25th, respectively in the men’s 50m fly, while Lucio Cuyong (2:18.57) placed 20th in the men’s 200m breaststroke.
Miranda Renner struggled in the women’s 100m freestyle and finished at 45th with 1:03.83, even as Albert Jose Amaro II (1:54.74) and Raymund Paloma (1:55.90) tumbled at 52nd and 54th, respectively, in the men’s 200m free.
