The competition, also known as the World Short Course Championships, will see Roxanne Yu, Jethro Chua and Jeremy Lin represent the Phillippines. In addition, BISP newcomers Lushano Lamprecht and Felicity Passon will don the colours of Namibia and the Seychelles, respectively.
This will be the three Filipinos first time taking part in this particular event, though both Yu and Chua have each set national senior records (Yu for the 200m backstroke and Chua in the 400m freestyle). Yu also represented the Phillippines in the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing this past September.
“It's really exciting, because last year when we went to Singapore for the [FINA/MASTBANK] World Cup, it was just three of us. Now there will be more of us representing our own countries and also representing BIS,” Yu told The Phuket News last week.
“It's good to see your teammates race alongside you in these big competitions.”
The swim academy began in August 2013 with just a handful of swimmers, but has since grown to include Lamprecht and Passon, both of whom are highly regarded swimmers from Africa and are no strangers to high-level competition.
Passon has set several records in her native Seychelles while Lamprecht was named “National Junior Sportsman of the Year” for Namibia in 2013. Both student-athletes have also competed in the 2012 World Short Course Championships in Turkey.
While Passon has only been in Phuket for a few weeks, Lamprecht arrived in early October.
“It was hard at first because it was my first time boarding, but everyone was helpful. I've fully adapted,” he said. “The trainign is similar as [in Namibia], though it's more technique based [at BISP].”
Even though all five student-athletes will represent their native countries in high-level competition – and possibly against each other – they all recognise they are still teammates at the end of the day. It's all part of their camraderie.
“It happens in training, we compete. If we see someone that's faster than you, you end up pushing yourself and end up pushing them to go faster too. So you're always working to make each other better,” Chua said.
For more information about BISP's swim programme, contact Simon Jones: sjones@bisphuket.ac.th