DAVAO City tankers Ivo Nikolai Enot and Liaa Margarette Amoguis collected a total of four silver medals and one bronze as Team Philippines harvested eight golds, 13 silvers and nine bronzes at the close of the 43rd Southeast Asia Age-Group Swimming Championships Sunday at the Morodok Techo Stadium in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Enot, 13, a student of Colegio de San Ignacio, bagged two silvers and one bronze. He timed 29.86 seconds, finishing second to Vietnamese champion Tran Tuan Anh Mai (28.92) in boys 13-under 50-meter backstroke while Yong Jie Yap (30.21) of Malaysia ended up with the bronze.
In boys 13-under 100m backstroke, Arafura Games 2019 triple gold medalist Enot (1:04.20) also came second to Tran Tuan Anh Mai (1:02.38) of Vietnam while Yap (1:05.18) took the bronze.
The Dabawenyo also salvaged the boys 13-under 200m backstroke bronze where he registered a new national record with a time of 2:20.61.
“My performance in Sea-Age was great. I got one of my achievements and that was the time that I broke the record, but sad to say I didn’t break the other two records but I’m happy naman,” Enot told SunStar Davao in a Facebook interview.
He dedicated his medals to God, his parents, coaches Haroon Cali and Evien Pajarito and the rest of the country’s SEA Age-Group swimming coaches.
“I want to thank my family, cousins and my classmates for their full support and my trainors who also supported me and trained me well and especially God who gave me this kind of blessing,” he added.
Meanwhile, 12-year-old Amoguis of Abba’s Orchard pocketed two silvers in girls 13-under 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley (IM) events. She clocked two minutes and 29.81 seconds behind Vietnam’s Al My Dang who checked in at 2:23.05.
Her 5:16.01 record in 400m IM was also good for silver as Al My Dang (5:08.10) clinched the gold.
Bemedaled Amoguis, for her part, was satisfied with her Cambodia stint, saying, “I am proud of my performance this SEA Age because its been almost a year and most of my past competitions have been complicated and stressful, but after those training, being healthy, cries, and pain I think it was worth the effort of achieving and accomplishing.”
She also shared, “This is for God, first I want to thank him for answering my prayers. Second is my family who had taught me to never give up on my dreams. Third is my coach who made me the athlete I was meant to be. Of course the fourth is for the president of PSI, Tita Lani, she deserved those medals after loving us equally.”
Coach Cali was equally proud of his swimmers. “They put up a good performance. I am always proud of them,” he said, pertaining to Enot and Amoguis and the other five Dabawenyos who also competed - Matthieu Adrien Tao, Lora Micah Amoguis, Rissa Angelian Sahagun, Rizbon Martin Yarra and Wilart Marvee Dayaday.
The Philippine delegates reportedly had a tour around Phnom Penh as of yesterday presstime.