Pinoy age-groupers bag six gold medals in Thailand swim meet

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Swimming League (PSL) bagged six golds, seven silvers and two bronzes yesterday in the 2014 Royal Bangkok Swimming Championship being held at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club Swimming Pool in Thailand.

Veteran campaigners Kyla Soguilon of Aklan and Daryl Concepcion of Diliman Preparatory School pocketed two gold medals each while Singapore Swimming Meet Most Outstanding Swimmer awardees Micaela Jasmine Mojdeh and Michael Gabriel Lozada delivered one gold each.

The nine-year-old Soguilon dominated the girls’ 9 years 100-meter freestyle (1:11.46) and 100m butterfly (1:17.70) while Concepcion also made his presence felt by ruling the boys’ 11-12 100m freestyle (1:02.24) and 50m breaststroke (1:17.70).

“Our grassroots training program works as we see good times of these age groupers. As we are telling the Philippine Sports Commission, this is the end result of the training program which is parallel to its objectives,” said PSL president Susan Papa.

Mojdeh, who saw action in the 2014 Western Cape Swimming Gala in South Africa, reigned supreme in the girls’ 8 years 50m breaststroke with a time of 47.40 seconds before Lozada joined the celebration by winning the gold medal in the boys’ 7 years 50m breaststroke in 48.87 seconds.

“These swimmers are aware of how they were treated by the PSC. They’re disappointed when the PSC didn’t approve our request for travel tax exemption. Pero lumakas ang loob ng mga bata sa suportang ibinigay nina Senators Pia Cayetano and Tito Sotto during the Senate hearing,” added Papa, whose association is not included in the list of ssociations supported by the PSC.

Winning silver medals were University of Perpetual Help System Dalta’s Martin Jacob Pupos (boys’ 15-over 100m freestyle), San Sebastian College-Recoletos’ Mico Abina (boys’ 15-over 50m breaststroke), Bicol’s Trisha Oliveros (girls’ 15-over 100m butterfly and 50m breaststroke), Soguilon (50m breaststroke), Concepcion (100m butterfly) and Lozada (100m freestyle).

Pupos (100m butterfly) and Oliveros (100m freestyle) added one bronze medal apiece.

The PSL is the national sports association for swimming of the Federation of School Sports Associations of the Philippines . It has the longest running swimming grassroots development program in the country. The PSL is also an affiliate to Federation International Sports University.