Deiparine ends Philippines’ decades-long SEA Games swimming drought, wins breaststroke gold

CAPAS, Tarlac — James Deiparine splashed his way to record-breaking performance in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke to give the Philippines its first swimming gold in the Southeast Asian Games in more than a decade.

Deiparine, 26, clocked one minute and 1.46 seconds to help end the country’s SEAG drought spanning four SEAG editions while erasing both the meet and national records.

The SEAG mark Deiparine broke was 1:01.60 set by Vietnam’s Nguyen Huu in Vientiane, Laos 10 year ago.  Deiparine also eclipsed the Philippine mark of 1:02.00 he himself recorded the Scottish Championship in Glasgow, United Kingdom.

Deiparine also surpassed his two-silver effort in the last SEAG in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia two years ago while exacting sweet revenge on his old nemesis Nathaniel Gagarin of Indonesia, who checked in at seventh.

Vietnam’s Pham Thanh Bao and Singapore’s Khoa Chien Yin Lionel ended up second and third in 1:01.92 and 1:01.98, respectively.

Another Philippine bet, Jonathan Sebastian Cook, who had the fastest time after the heats, sputtered to sixth in 1:02.62.

Remedy Alexis Rule had the chance to win the country’s first gold but fell short and settled for a silver in the women’s 200m butterfly in 2:10.99 behind Singapore’s Quah Jing Wen, who took the gold in 2:10.97.