CAPAS, Philippines – After an emotional performance in the 100m freestyle, veteran national swimmer Jasmine Alkhaldi felt thrilled with her double kill of nailing the Olympic B-cut and smashing her national record in the women’s 50m freestyle. 

Although she ended up with no gold medals to show in her two events in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games on Sunday, December 9, she was able set the Philippine record thrice, which made her “really happy.” 

“This one is a tough race because because all of us were so close, so to get a medal here, I’m very happy then my time is a Philippine record and [an] Olympic B-cut, so I’m just thankful,” said Alkhaldi after her swim in the 50m freestyle. 

Alkhaldi first surpassed her own national record of 25.64 seconds set last August in the Hong Kong Open as she matched the Olympic B-Cut time of 25.51s in the heats. 

She broke her own record again when she raced to a time of 25.48 seconds to bag the bronze medal behind gold medalist Singapore’s Amanda Lim – who set the meet record of 25.06s – and runner-up Thailand’s Jenjira Srisa. 

Alkhaldi then joined the women’s 4x100m medley relay team with Chloe Isleta, Desiree Manaoang and Remedy Rule to splash to a new national record in the event with a time of 4 minutes and 11.10 seconds that merited them a silver medal. 

Although Isleta got the first touch in the first 100m in the backstroke segment, Singapore’s team of Elena Pedersen, Christie Chue and Quah sisters Jing Wen and Ting Wen proved to be just to powerful for the Philippine team as they finished with new meet record of 4:07.05. 

The lone gold medalist of Philippine swimming in the 2019 SEA Games James Deiparine fell short in his bid for a double gold in the men’s 50m freestyle as he was out-touched by Singapore’s Lionel Khoo who finished on top with a 28.15s clocking. 

Deiparine settled for the silver with a time of 28.32s. – Rappler.com