Tankers vow to make waves in next Games

NAY PYI TAW – The lean national swimming team, reduced to a fighting four-member team from the original 10 recommended by th swim body, emerged from the pool of the Wunnum Theikdi National Sports Complex with three bronze medals at the close of competitions Tuesday.

National coach Pinky Brosas said he had not expected a gold medal performance from his team, three of them US-trained and one he trained locally, to produce excellent results considering the strength of the opposition from Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

The bronze medal winners were Matt Louis Navatta, from the University of South Carolina, in the 200m butterfly, Joshua, from the University of Minesotta, in the 100m breaststroke and Jasmine Alkhaldi, from the University of Hawaii, in the 100m freestyle.

Local boy Jessie Khing Lacuna was medal-less.

Alkhaldi could have won the first and only gold were it not for a decision of the technical committee to have the 100m freestyle event re-swum because of a false start. She won the bronze in the re-swim the next day.

“We look at the SEA Games as an opportunity for these young swimmers to look at their capabilities, and from here we can look forward to next year’s Asian Games, and certainly, the Olympic Games in 2016,” said Brosas. “They are young and show a lot of promise.”

Navatta, 22, whose father from Jolo is half Muslim and half Christian and whose mother is from Quezon City, is going back to the US to finish his studies in economics at USC.

“I would like to be back to show my fellow Filipinos that I can do more to bring honor to the country,” said Navatta.

Hall, 20, vows to train hard at the University of Minnesota to earn a slot in the Philippine team to Singapore or perhaps even in next year’s Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.