Team Philippines: Swimmer, archer end Olympic stint

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino swimmer Jasmine Alkhaldi ended her campaign at the 2012 London Olympics on Wednesday, August 1.

Alkhaldi clocked 57.30 seconds in Heat 3 of the women’s 100m freestyle, below her qualifying time of 56.92.

Only the top 16 swimmers advanced to the semifinals of the event. The 19-year-old Alkhaldi placed 34th out of 48 swimmers.

The highest-placed swimmer from Southeast Asia was Singapore’s Mylene Ong with 56.33, and finished 29th. The fastest qualifier was China’s Tan Yi whose time of 53.28 was barely off the Olympic record of 53.12.

Alkhaldi, who is currently on the swimming team at the University of Hawaii is the Philippine record holder in the 50m and 100m butterfly. She qualified for the 2012 Olympics based on the rule of “universality” which allows countries without qualified swimmers to send one male and female to compete.

On Sunday, July 29, Jessie Lacuña, the other Filipino swimmer competing at these Olympics also failed to make the cut, placing 36th out of 40 in  the men’s 200m freestyle event.

Archer down

Meanwhile, Pinoy archer Mark Javier is also out of the Games after failing to qualify past the first round of 32. Javier lost the men’s individual event to top-ranked American archer Ellison Brady 1-7 on Wednesday at Lord’s Cricket Ground.

Javier scored a 27, 25, 25, 22 in his four sets respectively, compared to Bradley’s 29, 28, 25, 29.

Four other Filipino athletes have also ended their campaign at London 2012. For the full list see our Olympics microsite. – Rappler.com