The British International School Phuket student, representing the Philippines squad at this year's competition, achieved the personal best time of one minute and 5.16 seconds – good enough for 4th place in the second heat of the women's 100m backstroke event last Sunday (August 17).
In addition, Yu – who was joined by her BISP swim coach Simon Jones, himself a coach for the Phillippines squad – set another personal best of two minutes and 18.96 seconds on Tuesday (August 19) during the 200m backstroke event, good enough for placed 19th overall.
Unfortunately, both times were not enough to qualify the 17-year-old for the finals in each event.
“I’m okay. It was my best time in the event and I’m happy with that,” Yu told The Philippine Star newspaper after the race.
“It feels really different racing [at the Youth Olympic Games] against swimmers of different nationalities. It was a very different kind of atmosphere. But it felt so good. And when my name was called I could hear our delegation cheering my name.”
Still, it has been a terrific year for the Filipina, one of the original swimmers to join the BISP High Performance Swim Academy which began last August. In November 2013, she set the Filipino senior record for the 200m backstroke (16.44 seconds) and medalled at the Queensland State Championships as well as the Southeast Asian Age Group Championships, among other international competitions.