PALARONG Pambansa standouts Jose Albert Amaro II and Sophia Rose Garra emerged from the WCH Arena pool yesterday with a bronze medal each in the 47th Southeast Asian Age Group Swimming Championships in Singapore.
Amaro, 17, who swept all of his seven events in the 2024 Palarong Pambansa in Cebu City, was relegated to third place in a time of 55.71 seconds in the hotly-contested boys 16-18-year-old butterfly stroke event.
In an event decided by a touch, he was just .01 seconds off Thai silver medalist Wong Patsamarn (55.71) while Malaysia’s Li Jie Goh (55.64) took the gold medal at the pool that will be the venue of the World Swimming Championships next month.
Amaro’s teammate, Alexander Eichler, was a close fourth (55.82), followed by 2024 Asian Age Group gold medalist Jamesray Ajido in fifth (55.98).
Garra, 13, who also completed a seven-gold sweep in the last Palaro in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, won a bronze in the girls 13-and-under 200-meter individual medley in a personal best of 2:31.37, exceeding her previous personal standard of 2:32.55.
She narrowly missed a second bronze earlier, placing fourth in the girls’ 13-and-under backstroke after clocking 1:06.86 behind Singapore bronze medalist Yeong Han Ng (1:06.70).
