ALTHOUGH she won gold and silver medals in the women’s 200 and 100-meter backstroke in the Vietnam Southeast Asian Games last month, Fil-Am swimmer Chloe Isleta missed the minimum qualifying or “B” standards of both events, the reason she is not vying in the World swimming championships opening this Saturday in Budapest, Hungary.
Swimming chief Lani Velasco yesterday said this was the reason why Isleta could not compete in the world meet after the International Swimming Federation belatedly decided to make the Vietnam SEAG swimfest held from May to 14 to 19 in Hanoi a qualifying event for the worlds.
Isleta’s mother, Cecile Doromal-Walker, in her Facebook page, had accused Velasco of being “arbitrary” in excluding her daughter from the world tilt despite her achievements in Hanoi.
FINA had earlier set May 15 as the final deadline for nominating entries to the world meet before giving the Vietnam Games a special exception, Velasco said.
“I was there when the announcement was made by the Vietnam SEA Games swimming organizers that FINA had made the competition a world qualifying event during the team managers meeting on May 12. This was the first time I and the other participating countries heard of this,” Velasco said.
