PH swimmers eyeing 4 Tokyo berths

James Deiparine –NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

The Philippines is looking at four swimmers to make it to the Tokyo Olympics as automatic qualifiers.

Led by the 30th Southeast Asian Games lone gold winner James Deiparine, the country has high hopes on the present bunch of swimmers including multiple SEA Games medalists Remedy Rule, Luke Gebbie and Jasmine Alkhaldi.

So far, the four tankers have made the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT) B in their respective events following their performances in the recent SEA Games.

But they have to make the faster cut in the OQT A in order to make the Games trouble-free.

Since the Fina (international swimming federation) tweaked its rules beginning in the 2012 London Games, the Philippines has not qualified a swimmer in the Olympics.

This time, Philippine Swimming Inc. officials, led by president Lani Velasco, are upbeat about the Filipinos’ chances.

Deiparine swam one minute and 1.46 seconds to win the SEA Games men’s 100-meter breaststroke. He needs to meet 59.93 seconds to hit the OQT-A mark.

Remedy Rule’s 2:10.99 in 200-meter freestyle also closes in on the 2:08.43 Olympic cut; and her 100 free mark of 55.80 seconds is close to the OQT-A standard of 54.38.

Alkhaldi, who made it to the past two Olympics via the universality rule, is 25.48 seconds in 50 free, just .81 seconds off the OQT-A.

Filipino-Australian Gebbie is currently 49.94 seconds in 100 free (48.57 seconds, OQT-A) and 22.62 seconds in 50 free (22.01 seconds, OQT-A). INQ