Fil-Am tanker looms as top gold medal hope

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Fil-American James Deiparine looms as the brightest hope of the national swimming team which is fielding only eight swimmers, with two holdovers from the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore.Deiparine’s time of 28.22 in a bronze medal finish at the Scottish National Swimming Championship exceeded the 28.27 clocking of Indonesian Indra Gunawan in the breaststroke event of the 2015 Singapore Games. His clocking of 1:02:00 in the Arena Pro Swim Series in Santa Clara, California also bettered the 1:02.46 of Malaysian 100m breaststroke winner Wong Fu Kang. Deiparine, 24, came to the attention of swimming secretary general Lani Velasco who saw him perform in a Tokyo meet last November and instantly brought him to the Philippines to join the qualifying tournament – the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary last July – for the SEA Games.

He made the grade with the highest Q mark among Filipino swimmers.

Deiparine, born of a Filipino mom and a half-Filipino, halfGerman father, has graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology from California Polytechnic in California and has taken a leave of absence from a law firm where he works as a legal aide to compete in the swimming competitions where 40 gold medals are at stake.

“I’m working out a plan to pursue a law program,” said Deiparine, from Seattle, Washington.

Other medal prospects are Olympians Jasmine Alkhaldi (50m, 100m, 200m freestyle and 50m, 100m butterfly) and Jessie King Lacuna (100m freestyle), Nicole Justine Marie Oliva (200m and 400m freestyle), Roxanne Ashley Yu (100m back), Rosalee Mira Santa Ana (relay), Nicole Meah Pamintuan (relay) and Maria Aresa Lipat (relay).