Swimming association identifies future champs

THERE’S a new breed of promising swimmers whose goal is seriously geared toward the success of the Philippine swim team.

National head coach Archie Lim revealed yesterday that 27 swimmers aged 18 years old and below have been identified by the national squad to lead the next generation of tankers in international competitions.

Southeast Asian age-group gold medalists Rafael Barretto, Hannah Dato and Xiandi Chua have been going through a series of high-performance training together with Palarong Pambansa multiple gold medalist Sacho Illustre and Youth Olympian Roxanne Yu.

Joining them are fellow Southeast Asia age-group medalists Jethro Chua, Chloe Daos and Erin Castrillo, among others, as the Philippine Swimming Inc., the local governing body, begins to rebuild the national team starting on the grassroots level.

“Our objective is to maximize their potentials and improve their clockings to be at par with the best on the international level,” said Lim.

The junior tankers went through a special high-performance swimming clinic for three days under renowned swim coach and sports scientist Wayne Goldsmith.

Lim said they were taught to focus on developing the physical, mental, technical and tactical attributes required to swim at the international level. He added the national coaches also attended the seminar.