La Salle tanker makes waves

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY — The scorching heat did not prevent De La Salle’s ace swimmer Philip Adrian Sahagun from giving the host country its first gold medal Monday at the 11th BIMP-EAGA Friendship Games here at the Ramon V. Mitra Sports Complex.

Sahagun, 21, who represents the country’s Team A, registered two minutes and 13.52 seconds — just a hairline faster than his closest pursuer in Indonesia’s Hidayatullah Aril (2:13.83) — to capture the boys’ 200m IM crown.

Aril and Philippines A’s Rodolfo Apilado III (2:20.82) captured the silver and bronze honors, respectively, in the eight-man finals.

“I didn’t expect to win because I just came back from the UAAP competitions and I wanted to rest a bit. Actually, I didn’t train for one week,” Sahagun said.

“But my mind set was to swim for the Philippines. In the last lap, I already felt pain but I saw my rival was closing in so I carried on because I didn’t want to give away the gold.”

Hours after his feat, Sahagun bagged his second gold medal along with his teammates in the 4x100 boys’ 400m freestyle relay where they clocked three minutes and 44.05 seconds, beating Malaysia’s Team B (3:50.05) and Indonesia (3:55.73).

Up next for the UAAP two-time bronze medalist are the 200 IM and 200m backstroke, 100m backstroke events, 4x100m medley.