Sports
Mojdeh pockets 2nd gold in Seoul swimfest

PHILIPPINE national junior record holder Micaela Jasmine Mojdeh continued to live up to her lofty billing by claiming her second gold medal in the Asia Pacific Activities Conference (APAC) Swimming Championships being held at the Seoul Foreign School swimming pool in Seoul, South Korea.

Mojdeh, who represented Brent International School Manila in the two-day meet, displayed another golden performance, topping the girls' 100 butterfly in one minute and 4.17 seconds.

The 16-year-old Filipino-Iranian outclassed Hong Kong International School tankers Andrey Sandeen (1:06.55) and Aidon Chow (1:08.00), who settled for silver and bronze, respectively.

Mojdeh earned her first gold medal in the girls' 200m individual medley (2:22.05) on the opening day.

She also captured two bronzes in the girls' 100m freestyle (1:00.90) and the girls' 200m medley relay along with Kirsten Tan, Jira Hedeager and Natalia Javier.

'I'm just happy winning the gold and at the same time improving my personal best in all of my three individual events here in South Korea. It was a great campaign here,' said Mojdeh, a semifinalist in the 2022 FINA World Juniors Championships held in Lima, Peru.

Not to be outdone was Kirsten Tan who earned a bronze in the girls' 50 backstroke with a time of 33.73 seconds.

Chadwick International Varsity's (CIV) Jenny Ra bagged the gold in 32.44 seconds while Anges Yu of HKIS took home the silver in 33.00 seconds.

Ethan Waskiewicz, Connor Hodges, Yuan Wang and Ethan Hodges also made their presence felt in the boys' 200m freestyle relay.

The Brent quartet submitted one minute and 47.90 seconds to claim the third-place honors behind Seoul Foreign High School bets Alex Yeum, Dohyun Kim, Chirstian Lee and Daniel Lee (1:45.24) and CIV tankers Ian Park, Kyle Chung, Justin Jin and Jude Kim (1:45.62).

'It was a great learning experience for all of them. We want them to enjoy the moment, meet new friends and learn the culture of this country and their foreign counterparts because this is what this sport is all about. Building character and learning new things,' said Swim League Philippines chairman Joan Mojdeh.

'Once again, we want to thank Brent International School Manila for supporting these young swimmers, sending them abroad to further hone their skills,' she added.