• A. V. DEL CARMEN
Negrense age-group swimmer AJ (Aehro Jeush) Tibus won eight medals, including one gold, in the Asian Open Schools Invitational Short Course Age-Group Swimming Championship, held in Bangkok, Thailand on Sept. 6-7.
Tibus, a native of Kabankalan City and a seventh grader at the University of St. La Salle Integrated School, won the gold medal in 100-m freestyle.
His winning 59.53 seconds was the lone clocking below the one-minute mark as silver medalist Surawit Boonpun of Thailand, and bronze winner Ryan Duong of Vietnam, finished in 1:00.30 and 1:00.35, respectively.
Tibus, who swam in the 13-year-old group, also won four silver medals – in 50-m freestyle, 100-m and 200-m individual medley, and 4×50 freestyle relay – and placed third in 100-m butterfly and 100-m breaststroke and in 4×50-m mixed freestyle.
He was a member of The Patriots-Visayas team that placed fourth overall in the medal tally, with a 40-81-75 gold-silver-bronze medal haul.
The Vietnamese Axolotls Club topped the two-day competition with a 99-41-28 harvest, with The Patriots -Luzon squad on its heels (73-93-85).
Thailand’s Chu Swim Club was third overall (63-29-22) while Indian Aquatics was fifth overall, with a 39-36-32 yield, a gold medal behind the Visayan team.
The two Philippine squads actually registered the highest number of medals won by all teams with the Luzon swimmers posting an aggregate of 250 medals while their Visayan counterparts reaped 250.
The Vietnamese squad, which topped the medal race, was third in the combined medal count with 166 while the Thais (Chu SC) won 116 medals, ahead of the Indians’ 107.
At the Ilocos Palaro early this year, Tibus won two gold medals in the elementary level — in 50-m freestyle and in 4×100-m freestyle relay — and placed second in 4×100-m medley relay. | AVDC
