Three Filipino swimmers concluded their respective campaigns in the 19th FINA World Aquatics Championships held at the Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary.
Two-time Olympian Jasmine Alkhaldi closed the Team Pilipinas campaign after finishing in a tie at seventh in Heat 7 of the women’s 50-meter freestyle with a time of 26.20 along with Hong Kong’s Camille Lily Mei Cheng.
The 29-year-old national team veteran finished 33rd overall after the preliminaries and with 737 FINA Points.
Jonathan Cook, who replaced 2020 Olympian Luke Gebbie on the roster, started the Filipino run with a 33rd place finish in the preliminaries of the men’s 200-meter breaststroke.
He touched eighth in Heat 2 of the first round with 2:19.95, seconds ahead of last-placed finisher Arnold Herrera of Costa Rica’s 2:24.46 and a mere 0.33 seconds after Zimbabwe’s Liam Davis.
Southeast Asian Games campaigner Miranda Renner competed next for the country in the women’s 50-meter butterfly, and she finished 32nd overall in the preliminary heats.
The current Philippine record of the said event touched tenth and last in Heat 5 with 27.22, a huge 0.19 seconds slower than her mark of 27.03 set in Hanoi.
The Philippine Swimming, Inc. sent a lean three-athlete field in this year’s Worlds as Gebbie and Jerard Jacinto begged off from participating, while Chloe Isleta was deemed ineligible on technicalities with regards to qualification. Gebbie is still recovering from injury, while Jacinto cited medical reasons.
