Thirteen-year-old Philippine junior swim sensation Micaela Jasmine Mojdeh stole the show on Sunday afternoon after snatching the gold medal of the Women’s 200m Butterfly event at the Hong Kong Open Swimming Championships in Victoria Park Swimming Pool.
Competing against much older swimmers in the Open Championships, the top-seeded Mojdeh showed maturity and fearlessness in the afternoon finals to reign supreme in the 200m fly event with a gold-medal time of 2:20.01.
It was a neck-to-neck battle for the gold with fellow Filipino swimmer, Rosalee Mira Santa Ana, and Thailand’s Sounthournchoke Supasuta.
SEA Games veteran Santa Ana narrowly finished second with a silver-medal time of 2:20.06, while 23-year-old Supasuta took the bronze with 2:20.91 clocking.
Although Mojdeh’s gold-medal time was a bit slower than her 2:19.51 junior national record, which she clocked at the ASEAN Schools Games last month, the win still gave her enough confidence heading to the 1st Philippine National Open Swimming Championships at the end of the month, the last qualifying meet for 2019 SEA Games.
Mojdeh now ranks 4th in this event, overtaking Samantha Banos, who clocked 2:20.15 at the 43rd SEA Age Group Swimming Championships.
Remedy Rule is currently the top swimmer in the 200m fly event with 2:11.28, followed by Santa Ana and Georgia Peregrina with times of 2:18.48 and 2:19.32, respectively.
Rule, Santa Ana and Peregrina have confirmed participation at the National Open.
Only the top two swimmers will be named to the 2019 SEA Games national team.
Meanwhile, Jasmine Alkhaldi again delivered a sterling performance in Hong Kong, snaring two more silver medals on the last day of the championships.
She placed second in both 100m Free and 50m fly finals with times of 56.57 and 27.62, respectively; while Camille Buico finished 5th in the 50m fly event after clocking 28.83.
Maurice Sacho Ilustre added another medal to his collection, this time taking the bronze in the men’s 100m butterfly event with a time of 56.02.