RP swimmer Molina looks forward to 2009 SEA Games

Filipino swimmer Miguel Molina – who has so far bagged two gold medals at the 24th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Thailand – hopes to compete in the 25th SEA Games that will be hosted by Laos in 2009. "I want to swim for the country in Laos two years from now. Then most likely I'll retire after that," Molina said after narrowly winning the 400-meter individual medley on Friday, according to a report issued by the Philippine delegation. "But it will have to depend if I can find some sponsors. Otherwise, I will have to retire and look for a job," the 23-year-old swimmer added. On Saturday, Molina won his second gold, in the 200-meter individual medley. Molina is an international relations graduate of the University of California-Berkeley. He made his SEA Games swimming debut in the 2001 at Kuala Lumpur. To keep performing, he said he would need to raise at least $2,500 (roughly P110,000) a month. And he would have to work doubly hard than he used to in order to remain sharp, with the competition becoming stronger. This was keenly seen last Friday in the 400-meter individual medley, where he had to scramble in the breastroke leg to nose out Indonesia's Muhammad Nasution, checking in at 4:28.85 seconds, just six-hundredths of a second ahead of his rival's 4:28.91. "I knew he was ahead in the early going," Molina said. "Going into the freestyle, I dared not look at him. If I did I might get discouraged and just swam on. I really didn't prepare as hard for the 400 IM. I still felt tired 30 minutes after the event was over." A day before he got his next gold, he was very confident, saying: "The 200 IM is what I worked hard for. I'm more confident of winning this." And, of course, he did, in the process getting himself a ticket to the the Beijing Olympic Games. - GMANews.TV