Phl hosts Olympic aquatics qualifiers

All roads lead to the New Clark City Aquatics Center in Capas, Tarlac as world-class swimmers vie for tickets for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the country’s hosting of the 11th Asian Age Group Championships.

Tournament organizers relayed the development during the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at the conference hall of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex on Tuesday that added significant mileage to the 26 February to 9 March event.

“Just two days ago, it has been declared that the tournament is now one of the Olympic Qualifying events for Paris,” organizing Committee President and CEO Joseph “Jojit” Alcazar said.

Alcazar was joined by COO Dave Carter and Congressman Eric Buhain, secretary-general of the Philippine Aquatics Inc., in the weekly session.

“That also means there will be world-class swimmers coming in and doing their best to make the qualifying times for Paris. So this is a huge opportunity for us to host and see these swimmers. It’s rare for us to see these high-caliber aquatics athletes flocking to our country.”

Around 1,300 athletes from 31 countries are expected to come over and compete in the four disciplines at stake, namely swimming, diving, artistic swimming and water polo.

Buhain clarified though that only swimming serves as a qualifier to the Summer Games slated 26 July to 11 August.

Nonetheless, organizers see a possible surge in the number of entries and countries participating leading to the event following the decision to make the event an Olympic qualifier. “We expect the number of entries to balloon because there are still a lot interested to join the event,” Alcazar said.

A total of 44 swimmers — 22 boys and 22 girls — will comprise Team Philippines set to compete in the meet after being selected during the national tryouts held at the Teofilo Yldefonso swimming pool at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex late last year based on the World Aquatics qualifying points.

Southeast Asian Games record holder Xiandi Chua and gold medalist Chloe Isleta lead the country’s bid in the tournament.