VETERANS Jamesrey Mishael Ajido and Jerard Dominic Jacinto topped their respective divisions and emerged as the most outstanding swimmers last Sunday in the Speedo Sprint Meet at the Teofilo Yldefonso Swimming Pool of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.
Underscoring their status as the country’s foremost homegrown pool powers, Ajido collected three gold medals in the junior class while Jacinto won two events in the 17-over division.
The 15-year-old Ajido, a gold medalist in the Asian Age group Championship last February in New Clark City, delivered the goods in the boys 15-years-old 100m Individual Medley (59.74), 50m backstroke (27.73) and 50m butterfly (25.10).
The FTW Royal Swim Club mainstay demolished rivals John Felipe of Wave Warriors (1:07.57) and Sean Quides of Atlantean (1:20.00) in the IM before beating Reis Heaven Dumadag of Black Marlin (31.71) and Felipe (32.71) in the backstroke.
Ajido completed his three-event sweep via an easy win in the fly event against Jeff Galvealban of Legend Swim (28.99) and Felipe (29.29).
“Nagpapasalamat po ako kay Lord at totally healed na ‘yung injury ko sa kaliwang balikat.
Tuloy naman po ang ensayo at maganda ang kundisyon ko. Hopefully, magtuloy-tuloy since pinaghahandaan ko po ‘yung National tryouts next month,” said the Grade 10 student at the De La Salle Greenhills.
The National trials set Aug. 15-18 (long course) and Aug. 20-23 (short course) will determine the members of the Philippine Team set to participate in the 46th Southeast Asian Age Group Swimming Championships in December, the 55th Singapore National Age Group and the 6th Malaysian Open Swimming both scheduled next year and the World Aquatics short course series also next year.
The 23-year-old Jacinto, a SEA Games multi-medalist, dominated the 17-over class 50m backstroke clocking 25.45 seconds against STW Royals teammate Ryan Belenag (26.98) and Raven Henry (27.99) of Betta Caloocan.
He claimed his first gold medal in the 50m butterfly with a time of 24,82 seconds.