Fil-foreign tankers bright hopes for elusive gold

MANILA, Philippines — Swimming, which went without a gold medal in the last four SEA Games, hopes to finally deliver on a team built around a crack crew of Fil-foreign tankers ready and raring to stamp their class when the 30th edition of the biennial meet is unwrapped on Nov. 30 at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan.

Remedy Alexis Rule, a Univ. of Texas alumna, is tipped to lead the Philippines’ pursuit of the elusive gold medals in the event set Dec. 4-9 at the Aquatics Center at the New Clark City along with Fil-Kiwi Luke Gebbie and Fil-Am James Deiparine.

Rule, 23, has shattered several national records, including Olympian Jasmine Alkhaldi’s 100-meter fly mark in the 18th FINA World Championships in Gwangju, Korea last July.

She also eclipsed the 200m fly record she herself posted in the TYR Pro Swim Series in the US some months back.

By clocking two minutes and 11.38 seconds in the same event, she also surpassed the SEAG mark of 2:12:03 which Singapore’s Quah Jing Wen set in winning the gold in the 2017 SEAG in Kuala Lumpur.

Gebbie is another talent to watch out for after he reset his own national record in the 100m free in the AON New Zealand in June.

Deiparine, who captured two silvers in the last SEAG in Malaysia, also shone in the worlds and clocked 28.13 seconds in the 50m breaststroke where his time is faster than the gold medal-winning time of 28.07 set by Indonesia’s Indra Gunawan in the last SEAG.

All three will arrive next week and will join the rest of the national team in their final buildup for the meet, which stakes 38 gold medals, 19 each in men’s and women’s divisions.