Vargas maps out Aquatics plans

MANILA, Philippines — It’s four years away from the Los Angeles Olympics but this early, Philippine Aquatics president Miko Vargas is laying the groundwork to qualify a homegrown swimmer with at least a selection B time and promote open-water swimming as a potential medal event.

Jessie Lacuna was the last homegrown Filipino to represent the country at the 2016 Olympics and Vargas said he hopes to develop more Olympic qualifiers from the grassroots. “Swimmers like Xiandi Chua who almost made the cut in the 400m individual medley could be next in line,” he said. “Also young guns like James Rey Ajido, who’s 15, was a gold medalist at the 11th Asian Age Group. Riannah Coleman, 15, Gian Santos, 18 and Ava Bautista, 17 are other swimmers we are hopeful for in the near future. A plan is for open-water swimming, an Olympic event, to be a focus as we see it as our best chance to achieve a medal in aquatics. It’s a true endurance test which Filipinos can excel in. Some Filipino tribes in Mindanao like the Badjaos live it daily. We’ve started open-water programs and we held national trials two months ago. We’re sending a team to the World Aquatics-sanctioned Hong Kong Open Water Championships on Nov. 7-9.”

Aside from open-water, Vargas said plans for the other aquatics disciplines are also on the table. “For water polo, we’ve just finished our selections for men and women, both junior and senior,” he continued. “We intend to engage a Serbian water polo coach who recently visited the Philippines. We’re sending a water polo junior team to the 46th SEA Age Group Championships in Thailand this year. Artistic swimming needs to start with a good foundation and for this, we will seek World Aquatics support in recommending a coach to begin our talent identification. For diving, we’ve made representations with PSC to support our request to train in China for three months.”

Vargas commended Kayla Sanchez and Jarod Hatch for representing the country at the recent Paris Olympics. “Kayla did really well, making the semis in 100m freestyle while setting a new national record in the heats,” he said. “Jarod didn’t do as well. His 100m butterfly best was off by almost two seconds. We’re very proud of the two. There isn’t much more we could ask of them. They’re both training and competing with the best in swimming from where they’re based so we hope they stay focused for the SEA Games in Thailand next year.”