Fil-American standout Remedy Rule stayed in the hunt for a qualifying slot for the Tokyo Olympics.
The 24-year-old Rule once again hit the Olympic Selection Time during the ongoing TYR Pro Swim Series at the North East ISD Blossom Athletic Complex in San Antonio, Texas.
Rule placed sixth with clockings of two minutes and 11.43 seconds in the preliminaries and then 2:12.23 in the finals of the women’s 200-meter butterfly.
Her prelims’ time put Rule inside the OST qualifying time of 2:12.08.
On the other hand, Rule’s finals performance also went past the competition’s Olympic wave II trial time of 2:12.56.
According to the FINA’s qualification rules, one athlete per event can potentially enter if they meet the Olympic Selection Time or if the quota of 878 athletes has not been reached.
An OST qualifier will be chosen once athletes who have the Olympic Qualifying Times have been selected.
“I’m a bit nervous but feels great to have a 200-m butterfly LC under my belt,” said Rule, a member of the Longhorns Aquatics team, in her message to Philippine Swimming Inc. president Lailani Velasco.
Rule, who is a from Crozet, Virginia and a two-time All-American awardee in the US NCAA, was one four Filipinos who hit OST-B time for the Olympic Games during the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
Rule’s next target is still the Olympic Qualifying Time of 2:08.43.
In the coming days, Rule will also seek to improve her times in the 200-meter butterfly and in the 200-meter freestyle.
So far, Hali Flickinger of the Sun Devils, hit the OQT in taking the gold medal in 2:07.55, with Regan Smith taking the silver medal in 2:08.85 to hit the OST qualifying time with Katie Drabot, who settled for the bronze medal in 2:10.20.
Also beating the OST clocking were US swimmers Leah Gingrich (2:10.42) and Katie Crom (2:11.31).
Velasco said it was unfortunate that James Deiparine was not able to swim in the men’s 100-meter breakstroke event.
Deiparine’s COVID-19 test results came out late, and did not reach organizers on time.
