Four swimmers could make it to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
James Christian Deiparine, Remedy Alexis Rule, Jasmine Alkhaldi and Luke Michael Gebbie have hit the Olympic Selection Time (OST-B) for the Olympic Games during the recent 30th Southeast Asian Games.
Deiparine took the Philippines’ lone swimming gold medal in the men’s 100m breast stroke event with an OST-B of 1:01.46, which went past the 1:01.73 “B” cut and him closer to the 59.93 “A” cut.
“I am extremely proud of what he and his teammates have achieved and I can only pray that you all continue to swim for our country,” Philippine Swimming Inc. president Lailani Velasco told Deiparine and his teammates.
Rule clocked an Olympic Standard Time-B in the 200 meter butterfly and in the 100 meter freestyle events.
On the other hand, Alkhaldi did it in the 50m and 100m freestyle events, while Gebbie hit the qualifying times in the 50m and 100m freestyle events.
Rule was the first one to make the Olympics “B” cut, after clocking 2:11.56 in the 200 meter butterfly event at the TYR Pro Clovis Swim Series in USA last June.
She trimmed her time to 2:11.28 at the FINA World Championships in Gwangju last July and again cut it to 2:10.99 at the recent SEA Games, making Rule the first Filipina tanker to have breached the 2:11 mark in this event.
The Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT-A) of the Women’s 200m Fly event is 2:08.43
During the 30th SEA Games, Rule clocked her second OST-B qualifying clocking, this time in the women’s 100m freestyle event with a time of 55.80, allowing her to breach the 56.01-second OST-B mark and move closer to the 54.38 second OQT-A.
Gebbie was the next Pinoy tanker to hit an Olympics “B” cut time.
This was in the last July’s Gwangju World Championships, when he became the first Filipino to have breached the 50-second barrier in the Men’s 100m Freestyle event as he surpassed the 50.03-second OST-B with his time of 49.94 seconds. The OQT-A of this event is 48.57.
The Fil-Kiwi snagged his second Olympics “B”cut during the SEA Games after clocking 22.62 seconds in the men’s 50m freestyle event.
His feat surpassed the 22.67 second OST-B.
Gebbie is zeroing in on the 22.01 second OQT-A.
Alkhaldi is now within the Olympics “B” cut times after her stint in the biennial meet.
Alkhaldi, a two-time Olympian, timed 25.48 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle to surpass the 25.51-second OST-B and the 55.76-second standard in the 100m freestyle events.