LED by veteran swimmer Jasmine Alkhaldi and Tokyo Olympian Luke Gebbie, the Philippine Swimming, Inc. has submitted a list of 15 swimmers — seven men and eight women — plus one female diver that make up the national aquatics team to the Vietnam Southeast Asian Games in May.
“After receiving the nominations and carefully deliberating on them, we are happy to share to you the roster we submitted to the Philippine Olympic Committee for the coming Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam,” PSI President Lani Velasco posted on the local swimming body’s Facebook page last Saturday night.
“Given the constraints and challenges of the pandemic for the training of our swimmers both here and abroad, we had to make sure that all the names included to the national team were deserving,” Velasco said.
The Melbourne-based Gebbie set a national record of f 59.64 seconds in the 100-meters in the Tokyo Olympics, which could have been good for a silver in the 2019 SEA Games at the New Clark City Aquatic Center in Capas, Tarlac. The Fil-Kiwi swimmer bagged a silver and bronze medal in the Philippine edition of the Games.
The other members of the men’s squad are Jonathan Cook, Adrian Philip Eichler, Jean-Pierre Khouzam, Donovan Payne Palisoc Lahmann and Jaden Christian Aclaro Olson.
Aside from Alkhaldi, who bagged two silver and six bronze medals in 2019 SEA Games, the other members of the women’s team are Xiandi Chua, Kirsten Chloe Daos, Thanya dela Cruz, Jessica Joy Geriane, Chloe Kennedy Doromal Isleta, Desirey Aubrey Mangaoang and Miranda Cristina Renner.
The lone women’s diver is Ariana Hannah Talingting Drake.
