A total of 16 swimmers — four women and 12 women — are set to compete in three legs of the FINA World Cup series to be held in Asia, according to Philippine Aquatics Inc. secretary general and Batangas Rep. Eric Buhain.
They are led by 2023 Cambodia Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Xiandi Chua, veteran national swimmers Chloe Isleta and Miranda Renner, and former Palarong Pambansa standout Jasmine Mojdeh on the women’s squad.
Buhain cited the Australia-based Chua, who recently set a national record in the women’s 400-meter individual medley at the Australian Short Course Swimming in Melbourne with a time of four minutes and 45.41 seconds.
She reset the six-year-old mark of 4:46.08 booked by Georgina Peregrina in 2018 and earned the right to represent the country in the World Short Course Swimming Championships from Dec. 10 to 15 in Budapest, Hungary.
Buhain said the other swimmers on the men’s side were bannered by siblings Miguel and Rafael Barreto, Albert Jose Amaro II, Joshua Gabriel Ang, Lucio Cuyong II, Robin Christopher Domingo, Jerard Jacinto, Raymond Vero Paloma, Marco Tirol, and Kyle Gerald Valdez.
He said the swimmers met the qualifying standards during the national short course trials last August at the Teofilo Yldefonso Swimming Center so they will be swimming in the third World Cup leg set Oct. 26 to 27 in Hong Kong and the fourth leg from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 in Singapore.
“Since the legs are being held in Asia and near the Philippines, we saw this as an opportunity for our swimmers to be given international exposure against top swimmers from all over the world,” Buhain said.
