Ilustre East nears COPA swim tilt crown
MANILA, Philippines -- The Ilustre East Swimming Club (IESC) is inching closer to the team title of the Congress of Philippine Aquatics (COPA) National Capital Region "One for All-All for One Swimming" Championships.
The swimming club, led by multi-medalists Patricia Santor and Krisoff David, pocketed five more gold medals in the tourney after the team hauled 21 gold medals in the opening day on Friday.
Santor and David's victories boosted the chances of IESC for the overall team championship in the three-day meet.
The 16-year-old Santor, a student at the University of Santo Tomas, topped the girls’ 16-yrs 100m freestyle, finishing at 1:04.16 over Savinnah Oliveros of Flying Lampasot (1:04.29) and Jhoey Gallardo of Coack King Club (1:06.99) to hike her gold medals hauled to six.
The swimmer, who was part of the Philippine team in the Asian Age group titl last February, also registered four wins in girls' 16-under 400 meter individual medley, 200 meter freestyle, 100 meter butterfly and the squad 400 meter medley relay.
She also had a runner-up finish in the 100 meter breaststroke.
On the other hand, the 17-year-old David had a gold medal in the 17-year-old 50 meter backstroke with a time of 29.22 seconds, over Kiko Mirasol of Betta team and Janne Simeon. He also topped the 400 meter individual medley on Friday.
“Maganda ang preparasyon. Hindi masyadong loaded sa training para kondisyon lagi, nakaprograma na kasi yung Palarong Pambansa, tapos national tryouts na talagang target naming makakuha ng slots for Philippine team,” coach Ramil Ilustre said, who also mentored the national team that won a gold, two silver and two bronze medals in February.
For his part, Aishel Evangelista continued winning medals after bagging the top prize in the boys' 14 years 100 meter freestyle.
This raised his medal tally to five after taking home gold medals in the 400 meter IM, 200 meter freestyle, 100 meter butterfly and 200 meter backstroke on Friday in the meet that is also a fund-raising competition in honor of his late father-coach Elcid.
