MANILA, Philippines - Fil-Am swimmer Lily Jordana said yesterday she’s more excited than nervous in her debut with the Philippine team at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Singapore on June 5-16 and her focus is learning how to deal with the pressure of competing in a high-level international competition with the goal of dropping time.
Jordana, 18, said she’s going all out to bring her “A” game to Singapore. “I’m not sure what to expect,” said Jordana whose father Martin traces his roots to Naga. “I don’t usually get very nervous and if I do, it’s right before a race. I’ve researched the previous SEA Games results to gauge the competition. I’ve looked up several swimmers who consistently place in the top three. Mostly, I’ve been trying to measure what it will take to contend for a medal. With swimming, you can never tell how the competition will perform from year to year. People retire, get faster and new competitors appear. I hope to perform well but I’m taking this one race at a time, stroke by stroke.”
Jordana often visits the Philippines with her parents, brother and sister. Her grandfather Virgilio Jordana, uncles, aunts and cousins all live in Manila. Last December, a special tryout was arranged for Jordana at the PhilSports pool with PSC chairman Richie Garcia, POC first vice president Joey Romasanta, Philippine delegation to the 28th SEA Games chef de mission Julian Camacho and former national coach Pinky Brosas watching. She was later invited to join the team to Singapore. Now that Jordana has been issued a Filipino passport as a dual citizen and registered with the Philippine Swimming Inc. (PSI), she’s good to go.
“Lily’s fast, she’s a Filipina and she can swim for us,” said PSI president Mark Joseph. “She has selected the Philippines as her sport country and the only thing she will not be able to do is to join the US nationals if it is used as a selection event for the US team. There are some really fast other girls but Lily is going to get a rocket No. 2 when she sees her life in the international dimension. Right now, her world is still a womb. I want to take our swimmers to the World Championships and put them into the FINA global database. Timing is now. We can put a competitive relay team in the Olympics and I’ve got the other three women ready.”
While Jordana isn’t looking beyond the SEA Games, she said qualifying for the Olympics has been her dream since she was a little girl. “I hope to be able to qualify and represent the Philippines in the Olympics,” she said in an email to The Star. “The Philippines isn’t just my dad’s country. It’s officially now my country, too. Honestly, it feels great and exciting. It is a commonly spoken about topic in my family. I’m pretty sure my siblings are tired of hearing how awesome this opportunity is although they continue to rejoice with me. As of now, my parents, uncle Joaquin and aunt Mariles are flying to Singapore to watch the SEA Games. Then, my dad and I will fly to Manila from Singapore as we plan on visiting family for about a week before going back to Texas. We’ll also visit my sister who’s working in Manila over the summer.”
Jordana said she is grateful to the POC, PSC, PSI, Department of Foreign Affairs, Bureau of Immigration and the national swimming team for making her participation at the SEA Games a reality. “There are so many people I would like to thank and hope to be able to do in person while I visit after the SEA Games,” she said. “People who have helped me get to this stage, several of whom I’ve not had the opportunity to make their acquaintance since I’ve been training and schooling away from the Philippines. My special and sincere gratitude to my Tito Joaquin, Ms. Cynthia Carrion, Mr. Garcia, Mr. Romasanta, Mr. Camacho and Mr. Joseph.”
Jordana said she hopes to compete in the 50-meter, 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke, 200-meter freestyle and at least one relay in Singapore. “I’m unsure of what relay I will be a part of,” she said. “I’m competing in my primary strokes. Usually, the events are chosen by the standard of what race best fits the swimmer. I’ve been trying to make every practice possible since the beginning of the long course season last April. My coach switched up our practice schedule a bit so now I’ve been doing more dry-land than usual. My club practices vary from day to day. Morning practices are for an hour on Monday and Wednesday and afternoon practices are anywhere from two hours to two hours and 30 minutes Monday through Friday. Saturday mornings are two hours. Thursday and Saturday, I spend an hour in the gym although my friend Alex Busher (of the Canadian national women’s team) and I have been doing kick sets in the pool for about 45 minutes and working out in the gym for another 30 minutes twice a week in the mornings. Both of us want to be prepared for college and I want to do well in Singapore. Due to training outside and having a heavy rain season, we’ve experienced an interrupted and unwanted delay in our training. Overall, I’m training about 20 hours a week.”
Jordana is now in Hawaii with national teammates Jasmine Alkhaldi, Joboy Gonzalez and Mira Santa Ana training under coach Jennifer Buffin. They will fly to Singapore on June 1 and meet up with the rest of the squad and coach Archie Lim. The team is made up of five male and seven female swimmers, namely, Gonzalez, Joshua Hall, Jessie King Lacuna, Aldrich McKirdy, Axel Ngui, Alkhaldi, Hannah Dato, Raissa Gavino, Jordana, Santa Ana, Imelda Wistey and Roxanne Yu.
Source: Joaquin Henson of Philippine Star
