Young Fil-Am tanker eyes big splash

Filipino-American Gian Santos vows to make waves in his first stint in the World Aquatics Championships from 27 July to 1 August in Singapore.

The 19-year-old Santos told DAILY TRIBUNE that he tweaked his training as he aims for faster times in the men’s 400-meter freestyle and 200m individual medley (IM) events.

“I didn't do too much differently. I definitely changed my workouts a little bit because I found out my events pretty early on into the summer that I'm going to be doing 400m freestyle and 200 IM,” Santos said.

“So, I've been trying to cater my practices more towards doing mid-distance freestyle and also sprint IM as opposed to having a wider range of events.”

Santos, a Columbia University swimmer in New York City, will be representing the Philippines with Adrian Philipp Eichler, who will swim in the men’s 100m and 200m freestyle events.

“It's nice that it's only the two of us going because it'll just be two of us supporting each other throughout our races and competing against other people at Worlds. So, I'm hoping that he also gets some best times,” Santos said.

Going up against the best swimmers in the world, Santos said his goal is to punch in faster times in his events.

He posted his best times of three minutes and 55.61 seconds in the 400m freestyle event of the Speedo Summer Championships in Irvine, California last year while he clocked 2:04.44 in the 200m IM of the TYR Pro Swim Series - Fort Lauderdale in Florida last March.

“Mainly, I'm just trying to go for the best times because preliminary swims are much harder than final swims,” Santos said.

“But at Worlds, it's unlikely I'd be getting top eight but I'm just going to give my best effort and, hopefully, have some time improvements in the 400m freestyle.”