Jerard Jacinto boosted his bid to make it to the Southeast Asian Games-bound Philippine team after a record-breaking performance in the 7th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Tuesday.
Jacinto, 18, erased the 22-year-old 100-meter backstroke record of Ryan Papa by clocking 56.27sec in the preliminaries.
Papa’s record of 56.48was also matched by Jaden Christian Olson early this month in the NCSA Summer Championships in the United States.
Jacinto’s feat also eclipsed the same national junior record of Olson.
Jacinto failed to qualify in the 16-man semifinals after finishing 22nd.
His performance, however, was two seconds slower than reigning SEA Games gold medalist, Games record holder and Olympian Quah Zheng Wen of Singapore. Quah won the gold at the 2017 Malaysia SEA Games with a time of 54.81sec and has a meet record of 54.51sec.
