2 more Philippine records broken in Fina world championships

From L-R: Luke Gebbie, Nicole Oliva, Remedy Rule and James Deiparine. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–National record holders Remedy Rule and Luke Michael Gebbie both hit the Olympic Selection Time at the 18th Fina World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

In his first event on the world stage, the Fil-Kiwi Gebbie clocked 49.94 seconds in the men’s 100 freestyle preliminary that shattered his own national record of 50.25 seconds established last month at the New Zealand National Open.

Filipino swim heroes Ryan Papa, Miguel Molina and Charlie Walker previously held the Philippine standard in the 100m free.

Aside from becoming the first-ever Filipino to finish the event under 50 seconds, Gebbie also achieved a Tokyo Olympic Selection Time (OST) after breaching the 50.25 standard.

Rule, who also erased her own national record in the women’s 200m butterfly with a 2:11.38 swim, narrowly missed the semifinals in the ongoing world championships.

Nevertheless, the two-time All-American surpassed the 2:12.28 OST in the event, inching toward the 2:08.43 Olympic Qualifying Time.

Rule first achieved the OST last month in the TYR Pro Swim Series in Clovis, USA where she set the PH record of 2:11.56.

Swimmers who hit the OQT get the green light to see action in the Olympics while an OST does not provide an automatic ticket.

Priority is given to OQT and universality place swimmers for Olympic spots before the Fina invites OST tankers to complete the 878 swimmers needed in Tokyo next year.

Four days into the world championships, Filipino swimmers have already established four new national records and a pair of OSTs, hands-down the best performance of Team Philippines on the global stage in recent years.

Rule wound up 19th among 33 elite swimmers around the world in the 200m fly, was sixth overall in Asia, and No. 1 in Southeast Asia.