Davao City pride Ivo Nikolai Enot and Micaela Jasmine Mojdeh captured silver medals to cap the Philippine junior swimming team’s impressive showing in the just-concluded 46th Southeast Asian Age Group Championships at Assumption University in Bangkok, Thailand.
The 18-year-old Enot finished second in the boys’ 16-18 50m backstroke (26.86) behind Indonesian Jason Donovan Yusuf (26.40) aside from taking the bronze in the 100m backstroke.
Mojdeh, on the other hand, captured her second silver medal in the girls’ 16-18 200m butterfly, clocking 2:21.43 behind Thi Thuy Trang of Thailand (2:18.55) as the country closed out its campaign on high note.
Jamesray Mishael Ajido accounted for the country’s lone gold.
Mojdeh earlier won a silver in the 100m butterfly event (1:03.40) to wrap up her junior career in style.
For the first time, artistic swimming contributed with a silver through Carmina Sanchez Tan in the women’s solo free.
In all, the 12-man junior team formed by the Philippine Aquatics, Inc. collected one gold, six silver, and one bronze medals.
“Our youth program is like a gift that keeps on giving, and the PAI is truly proud of our young athletes for keeping the winning spirit alive despite huge and tough challenges. And we shall treat this recent campaign as sort of ‘pampa good vibes’ as we face new challenges in 2025. To our young team, thank you for ending our year on a high note,” said PAI Secretary General Batangas 1st District Congressman Eric Buhain.
A Grade 9 student at La Salle Greenhills, Ajido set a new meet record in the boys 14-15 50m butterfly (25.53), erasing the five-year-old meet record of Vietnamese Nguyen Hoang Khang.
Last February, he was the lone gold medalist and meet record holder in the 13-14 100m butterfly (55.98) in the Asian Age-Group Championships in New Clark City.
Meanwhile, the four-man squad comprised of Southeast Asian Games record holder (2023) Xiandi Chua and SEAG gold medal winner (2022) Chloe Isleta, Andrian Eichler, and Merin Mahmutuglu will compete in the World Championships (short course) starting Wednesday in Budapest, Hungary.
