Jasmine Alkhaldi RAFFY LERMA
SINGAPORE — Jasmine Alkhaldi and Joshua Hall produced the first medals for Philippine swimming after finishing third in their respective events Sunday night in the Southeast Asian Games at the OCBC Aquatics Arena here.
Alkhaldi wound up third in the women’s 50-meter butterfly event, while the 24-year-old Hall snared bronze in the men’s 100m breaststroke.
Hall timed one minute and 2.84 seconds to place behind gold winner Wong Fu Kang of Malaysia (1:02.46) and Matjir Radomyos of Thailand (1:02.63).
The 21-year-old Alkhaldi, an NCAA Division 1 swimmer from University of Hawaii, clocked 27.47 seconds to finish in the podium behind two Singaporeans, Tao Li who broke the meet record to win the gold, and Quah Ting Wen who was second.
Li swam 26.58 seconds to reset her own record in 2011 in Indonesia (26.59 seconds) while Quah finished in 27.02 seconds.
Hannah Dato checked in seventh in the event with a time of 27.91 seconds.
Jessie Khing Lacuna, who like Al-Khaldi is a pillar of the PH swim squad here, placed fifth in the 100m freestyle final. CC