Swimmer Alegarbes wins PHL’s first Asian Youth Para gold after 8 years

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

The gold medal drought finally ended.

After eight long years, the Philippines again won the gold medal in the Asian Youth Para Games after swimmer Ariel Alegarbes topped the men’s 17 & 18 years old 100-m butterfly S14 category.

The prized para swimmer recorded an official time of one minute and 1.96 seconds for the gold medal honors.

Alegarbes had the better of Japanese Rei Kagose who settled for the silver medal with one minute and 2.74 seconds while Thailand’s In-Choo grabbed third place with one minute and 6.93 seconds.

Aside from the historical milestone Alegarbes accomplished, this is also the first gold medal of the country in the ongoing quadrennial meet.

Last 2013, it was long jumper Jomer Anden who won the gold medal in the AYPG and cemented his name as one of the all-time greats.

A few days ago, the Philippine Men’s Para-Wheelchair national team stunned the home bet Bahrain, 37-31, who also played their first Para-Wheelchair basketball game in the U-23 category of the AYPG.

Meanwhile, Ron Russel Mitra, PH’s representative in the athletics event, T20 400-meter category, nabbed the silver medal after clocking in 54.65 seconds.