Twelve-year-old earns slot in RP swim team

BACOLOD – Lake City Swim Club’s Banjo Borja made the biggest splash in the national age group swimming championships late Friday afternoon, surpassing automatic qualifying times in three events.

Borja, 12, hit the criteria in the 100m backstroke, 200m IM and 400m IM, leading the list of young swimmers who have gained berths for the RP team to the 29th Southeast Asian Age-Group Championships from June 1-3 in Brunei.

"I’m happy my hard work is paying off," said Borja, the youngest of three swimming siblings, who took up the sport at a tender age of four.

Other qualifiers so far are Ryan Arabejo, Gerard Bordado, Ferdinand Frigillana, Marichi Gandioco, Carmina Mari Quilala, Denjylie Cordero, Johanssen Aguilar, Nikita Dacera, Marielle Infantado, Edzen Dinglasan, Ernest Dee, Liane Marie Marquez and Christian Miguel.

Borja hit the 1:07.48 Category 1 criteria in 100m backstroke and surpassed the 2:29.20 standard in 200m IM with a clocking of 2:26.33.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association, under POC-recognized president Mark Joseph, charted a four-year strategic plan with a mission to develop aquatic sports in the country.

Joseph said the PASA board drew up and approved an extensive road map that it hoped would lead to successful stints by Filipino swimmers in the international competitions and increase interest and participation of the Filipino people in the sport at home front.

"We’re excited to move, and to rock and roll," said Joseph after presiding over the board meeting coinciding with the sixth PASA national age-group swimming championships at the Panaad Sports Complex.

PASA identified four points that could help achieve its mission in the four-year plan between now and 2009.

The group said they need effective management to support a sustainable organization, provide a range of strong development programs, stage international and domestic competitions, and hopefully foster success of Filipino swimmers at the international level.

Former Olympian and PASA director Pinky Brosas has been tasked as the group’s "high performance" director in coordination with POC counterpart Mike Keon.

At the same time, PASA agreed to put up a "youth program" in Mindanao which has always been a rich source of talents for the Philippine team.

For the national training pool members, PASA intends to adopt the international point system (IPS) to rank the swimmers properly.

"We didn’t invent this system. This has long been used by so many countries. This will determine who should be supported and maintained in the national pool," said Joseph.