Chua clinches World Cup spot

Xiandi Chua secured an additional spot in the World Cup Championships after posting a strong performance in the World Cup Qualifying Series at the OCBC Aquatic Center in Singapore over the weekend.

The 24-year-old Chua clocked two minutes and 9.71 seconds in the women’s 200-meter backstroke to surpass the Qualifying Time Standard B (QTB) of the World Cup Championships that will be held in Budapest from 10 to 15 December.

The De La Salle University student got her first QTB after posting 4:45.41 in the women’s 400-meter individual medley in the 2024 Australian Short Course Swimming Championships in Australia last September.

Her time broke the 4:46.08 national record that Georgina Peregrina set at the New Zealand National Championships on 5 October 2018.

Joining Chua in the World Cup will be former Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Chloe Isleta, who surpassed the QTB in the women’s 100-meter individual medley and 100-meter backstroke during the Puerto Rico International Short Course Championships last month.

Aside from breaking the QTB mark, Chua also made it to the finals of the women’s 200-meter mark together with 18-year-old Jasmine Mojdeh while the Joshua Ang, Rian Marco Adiong Tirol and Filipino-American Miranda Renner posted new national records.