MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Jasmine Alkhaldi made her first appearance in the 29th Southeast Asian Games swimming tournament and immediately added 3 bronze medals to Philippine swimming’s haul from her individual events on Wednesday, August 23 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

Jasmine Alkhaldi finished third with her personal best time of 55.90 behind Vietnamese swimming star Thi Anh Vien Nguyen (55.76) and defending women’s 100m freestyle champion Ting Wen Quah, who was able to reset her own SEA Games record to 55.74. 

Alkhaldi went head-to-head once again with Nguyen and Quah in the women’s 50m butterfly, and finished third with a time of 27.27. Singaporean Quah bagged the gold medal once again in this event (26.83) and Thailand’s Jenjira Srisa-ard (26.94) nabbed the silver medal.

Alkhaldi later earned a third bronze as part of the Philippine women’s team which placed 3rd in the 4x200m freestyle relay with an overall time of 8:18.58. Joining Alkhaldi in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay are Nicole Oliva, Nikki Pamintuan and Rosalee Santa Ana. 

Alkhaldi anchored the Philippine quartet to the bronze medal finish, as she bested Indonesia in the last lap. 

Jessie Lacuna finished in 5th place in the men’s 200m freestyle finals, as he clocked 1:51.33, an improvement from his preliminaries time of 1:53.65.– Rappler.com