500 tankers clash for honors in Coseteng nat'l tiff

MANILA, Philippines - Defending UAAP champion University of the Philippines and La Salle Dasmariñas lead the cast of future champions in the first former Sen. Nikki Coseteng Swimming Championships which gets under way today at the Rizal Memorial pool.

Philippine Sports Commission chairman Richie Garcia will be on hand to award the trophies and medals to the winners in various age group events of the competition which has assembled 500 top swimmers from 51 teams in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Susan Papa, president of the organizing Philippine Swimming League, said the Zamboanga team had been in Manila as early as Dec. 12 while the Mayon Ibalong of Naga, which is fresh from its triumphant performance in the Patana Age Group Swimming Championships in Bangkok last weekend, opted to stay in Manila to prepare for the one-day national age-group championship.

They will join swimmers from Bacolod, Dagupan, Davao, Surigao, Cebu, Bohol, Ilocos, Laguna, Cavite, Batangas, Lucena, Pampanga, Tarlac, Pangasinan, Mindoro, Tagaytay and various clubs and schools from Metro Manila.

At stake in the championship, supported by the PSC and the Diliman Preparatory School headed by Coseteng, are medals for the top three finishers and an all-expense-paid trip to a foreign competition next year for the most outstanding male and female swimmers and the swimmer with the most number of meet records established.

The event also features a skins competition, an 8x50 swimming event where the slowest swimmer is eliminated after each 50-meter swim until only one swimmer remains.

The fastest swimmer earns P3,000.

The competition, organized by the PSL, is held in honor of Coseteng, who started a massive swimming development program in the DPS, of which she is president, and expanded it to the provinces as part of the school’s outreach program.

Coseteng also supported the monthly PSL competitions, offering the DPS Swimming Center as venue, and local swimmers’ participation in international competitions abroad.

She organized the successful 2010 Peace and Unity Swim which aimed to break the Guinness record for the most number of finishers in a 24-hour, non-stop relay swim at the DPS Swimming Center.

The championship is the culmination of the 12-month PSL Swimming Circuit where the top 16 swimmers from each group were chosen. The 16 swimmers will compete, Olympic style, in the morning heats, with the top eight advancing to the finals.

The winners’ individual times will be registered as the PSL-national age group records for the 50-meter course.

Papa said all individual records will be compared to the American motivational standards – AAAA to B standards – to help monitor the progress of the country’s top age group swimmers who will eventually be tapped for national and international competitions.