Lacuña churns to third gold in Singapore

MANILA, Philippines - Jessie Lacuña bested Japanese Satoshi Watanabe and Singaporean Rainer Ng to notch his third gold medal in the Singapore Age Group Swimming Championships in Singapore last Sunday.

Lacuña reigned in the 200-meter fly in the boys’ 15-17 years old category, clocking two minutes and 3.01 seconds, beating Watanabe and Ng, who came in second and third in 2:04.65 and 2:05.17, respectively.

It was Lacuña’s third victory after scoring a sprint double in the freestyle event. He also won a silver medal in the 400m freestyle event.

Another RP bet, Jasmine Al-Khaldi, added a bronze in the 50m free for 15-17 girls after clocking 26.56 seconds. She surpassed her previous best of 26.60 seconds in the SEA Games in Laos last year.

Quah Ting Wen (26.51) and Amanda Lim (26.96) of Singapore topped the event.

Al-Khaldi, a former multiple gold medal winner in the Palarong Pambansa, also shone in the 100m freestyle where she reset the old mark of 59.19 by Fil-Am Christel Simms in the 2008 Beijing Olympics with a new clocking of 57.12.

Banjo Borja also produced another bronze for RP in the 200m breaststroke for 15-17 boys in 2:25.26.

The RP tankers are gearing up for the first Youth Olympic Games slated slated Aug. 14-26, also in Singapore.    – Joey Villar