Homegrown stars made their presence felt and stole the limelight from their fancied foes in the Philippine Aquatics Inc. (PAI) national trials for long course (50 meters) on Friday at the Rizal Memorial Aquatic Center.

National junior records holder Jamesrey Ajido and Micaela Jasmine Mojdeh powered local stars into winning multiple gold medals in their respective categories of this event that aims to assemble a competitive national squad.

The 15-year-old Ajido clocked 56.25 seconds to break the Southeast Asian Age Group Qualifying Time Standard (QTS) in the boys 14-15 100-meter butterfly of 57.47 seconds, beating Rodevic Gonzalvo (59.33 seconds) and Kristian Cabana (1:00.08 seconds).

Ajido also matched the QTS after posting 24.64 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle to complete his four-gold medal haul and beat Jet Berueda (25.68 seconds) and Elijah Ebayan (25.87 seconds).

“I was quite surprised with my performance because I think I’m off today compared to yesterday,” said Ajido, a Grade 9 student at La Salle Greenhills who won a gold in the Asian Age Group Championships last February.

Likewise, Mojdeh made sure her name will be included in the national training pool as she clocked two minutes and 40.27 seconds to break the QTS of 2:40.42 and win the girls 16-18 200-meter breaststroke over Reiko Uy (2:47.50) and Sealtiel Daiz (92:48.45).