December 29, 2021 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — More than medals, the Philippine Swimming, Inc. (PSI) is focused on earning points from the International Swimming Federation (FINA) to qualify its swimmers to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“In terms of goals, we can’t really specify any particular number of medals as this has never been a goal for us,” said PSI president Lailani Velasco. “Our performance can ultimately be gauged based on the FINA points that our swimmers establish.
“We hope our athletes can continue to achieve higher FINA points as we had the last year,” she added.
Velasco was referring to Luke Gebbie and Remedy Rule, who both earned enough FINA points to qualify to last August’s Tokyo Olympics.
And she is bent on taking the same path.
“This will give us an indicator that we are heading in the right direction as we move closer to the next Olympics in 2024,” said Velasco.
Of course, the country will be out to improve on a one-gold, six-silver and nine-bronze performance in the 2019 SEA Games at the New Clark City Aquatics Center in Capas, Tarlac.
“We have a busy calendar for 2022, which includes the 31st SEA Games in Vietnam, the 19th FINA World Championships in Japan and the 19th Asian Games in China and we hope to send our best athletes to these competitions,” said Velasco.
