The event, which culminates in the national finals set Dec. 8-10 at the Trace Aquatics Center in Los Baños, Laguna, will be open to all PASA-registered clubs in the country.
"Our goal is really to expand our base in swimming, the more the people involved the more our chances of discovering fresh talents," said PASA president Mark Joseph.
Joseph said there is a "black hole" in the sport right now since there are only few swimmers who could fill the slack in the event some of the country’s mainstays, like United States-based and triple gold medal winner in the 2005 Manila Southeast Asian Games Miguel Molina, retire.
In fact, Miguel Mendoza, another SEAG gold medalist who specialized in long distance events, had already retired, leaving SEAG bronze medalist Ryan Arabejo as the country’s best hope in the event.
"So that is the reason we’re launching this program, to try to address that issue," said Joseph, who expects some 3,000 aspirants to see action in the event to be divided into three stages — the sub-regional tournaments, the regional finals and the national finals. — Joey Villar