By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Filipino swimmers finished 16th overall in their qualifying heat of the mixed 4×100-meter medley relay but consoled themselves after resetting the national record on Wednesday, Feb. 14, at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar.
The team of Jerard Jacinto, Thanya Dela Cruz, Jarod Hatch and Kayla Sanchez clocked 3 minutes and 53.91 seconds to eclipse the previous Philippine record of 3:57.01 set by Jacinto, Dela Cruz, Hatch and Jasmine Alkhaldi at last year’s Southeast Asian Games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The Filipino bets, however, were fourth best among seven other Asian nations behind Japan, China and Singapore in the 32-team field.
Great Britain led the eight qualifiers with a time of 3:45.50, followed by Australia (3:45.54) and the United States (3:45.93).
Other squads who advanced to the finals were Greece (3:46.54), Poland (3:46.57), Japan (3:46.92), Sweden (3:47.50) and Italy (3:47.65).
Teia Salvino, meanwhile, failed to advance to the 16-player semifinals in the women’s 200m freestyle after placing 38th out of 50 swimmers.
She clocked 2:08.02, a far cry from the four-year-old national record of 2:00.35 set by Remedy Rule at a race in Des Moines, United States.
It was also nine seconds slower than the last qualifying swimmer in Janna Van Kooten of the Netherlands, who timed 1:59.41.
Meanwhile, the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay is competing at presstime as well as Sanchez in the women’s 100m free.
