Xiandi Chua and Chloe Isleta made history by finishing first and second in the women’s 200-meter backstroke finals, becoming the first female Philippine national team swimmers to do so.
The historic moment took place on Monday at the Morodok Techo Aquatics Center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Chua won the country’s 18th gold in the Games, and it was the first gold medal in swimming, extending the golden streak for the sport to three editions.
The reigning UAAP Most Valuable Player broke the Games record of Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Ahn Vien of 2:13.64. She set a new time of 2:13.20 and broke her own national record of 2:14.96 set last month at the Australian Championships.
Isleta followed suit with 2:16.19, securing her second straight Games medal to go along with her title in the same event in last year’s edition.
Fonpray Yamsuan of Thailand completed the podium with a time of 2:17.95.
Jasmine Alkhaldi, a national team stalwart, won a silver medal in the women’s 100-meter freestyle with a time of 56.12 seconds. She was just 0.29 seconds behind Singapore’s Quah Ting Wen, who won gold with 55.83 seconds.
Vietnam’s Nguyen Thuy Hien won the bronze medal with a time of 56.42 seconds.
Chua and Alkhaldi, along with Teia Salvino and Jerard Jacinto, are multiple medalists in the Games. Moreover, Team Philippines’ medal tally now stands at one gold, four silvers, and two bronzes.
Jacinto became the country’s first multiple medalist in the Games on Sunday after pocketing the silver in the men’s 50m backstroke. He set a new national record mark of 25.56 seconds, breaking the 25.77 he set during the morning’s preliminaries.
The 21-year-old upstart bagged the squad’s first medal of the Games with Saturday’s bronze-medal swim in the 100m backstroke with 55.99 – which was a national record as well at that time.
Jacinto also set the tone for the men’s 4×100-medley relay quartet that finished sixth with a fresh national record in the 100m backstroke with 55.83 en route to a “B” standard for the 2023 Fukuoka World Aquatics Championships. The men’s squad stopped the clock at 3:43.85.
Games debutant Salvino, on the other hand, joined veterans Miranda Renner, Chua, and Alkhaldi in the silver-medal performance in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay with a time of 3:47.96 on Saturday.
She then followed it up with a bronze in the 50m backstroke on Sunday with a 28.99-second finish – yet another new PH record.
