Barreto outclasses Ilustre in age group swim

Rafael Barreto stunned three-time Palarong Pambansa MVP Maurice Sacho Ilustre in a pulsating boys 100-meter freestyle final to highlight an exciting close to the National Age Group Swimming Championships at the Rizal Memorial pool yesterday.

Running neck-and-neck throughout the race, Barreto nipped Ilustre by a whisker, clocking 53.37 seconds to the latter’s 53.83 in closing out his campaign on a perfect note in the three-day meet organized by the Philippine Swimming Inc., the country’s swimming body recognized by the Asian Swimming Federation and the International Swimming Federation.

“Beating Sacho (Ilustre’s nickname) was not on my mind but I was more concerned of getting my personal best,” said Barreto, 17, who arrived last Thursday fresh from a four-month training in the US, after beating the Palaro standout.

“I believe Rafa could have raced faster because he might still be feeling the jet lag. I congratulate him for a good race,” said Ilustre, 18, the Palaro high school boys MVP from 2015 to 2017, in being gracious in defeat to his younger rival.

Competing in different age brackets, Barreto completed a four-for-four sweep of his events in the boys 16-18 division while Ilustre took his fifth and sixth golds in the 19-over bracket, counting his win in the 200-meter butterfly (2:09.40) in the 200-meter butterfly later in the day.

Ilustre, who will be an incoming freshman at La Salle, also had a bronze medal in the 50-meter freestyle of the competition supported by the Philippine Sports Commission.

Sharing the day’s honors was medley specialist Xiandi Chua, who also won a riveting girls 100-meter freestyle race at the expense of Nicole Meah Pamintuan, checking in with a time of 59.31 seconds, slightly more than a second faster to the reigning Palaro high school MVP’s time of 1:00.49.