By BRIAN YALUNG

Filipino swimmer Xiandi Chua admitted that her performance in the recent Southeast Asian Games in Phnom Penh exceeded her expectations after a string of disappointments along the road. *Xiandi Chua is one the country's top performers in the recent Southeast Asian Games.*

Chua had a good medal haul, bagging a gold, a silver and two bronze medals in the 32^nd SEA Games. However, the 23-year-old said that she went through some tough moments before the biennial meet. The DLSU Green Tanker admitted going through rough patches, especially after her performance in the last SEA Games where she was unable to bring home a medal. It came to a point where she thought of quitting the sport and not swimming anymore since she felt she was not good enough to compete in high-level swimming performance. “The people around me who supported me throughout my swimming career, they always talk to me, especially my coach [Pinky Brosas]. He talked to me about just enjoying the process and to keep moving forward because he feels my potential has not been maximized yet and that there are more things to work on. It will be just a waste to leave everything behind because of that failure,” Chua shared. “To walk away from a sport, on a bad note, is something that I may regret in life later on,” she added. Heading into this year’s biennial meet, the 23-year-old set a modest goal – which is to bring home at least a bronze medal. “For this SEA Games, I just wanted to come home with a bronze [medal],” Chua stated. But to her surprise, Chua ended up getting something bigger – a gold medal and shattering a SEA Games record after clocking 2:13.20 in the women’s 200 meter backstroke event besting the previous record of 2:13.64 set by Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Anh Vien in the 2017 SEA Games. “So as I touched the wall and saw that we broke the SEA Games record, I was really happy. More so, I was with Chloe Isleta who won the silver as well. In the history of the Philippines, the women's team never won as a one and two finish. So, me and Chloe were really happy and we celebrated. We we’re so happy that we couldn’t sleep that night. It was just a very fun experience and we’re very grateful for the results,” Chua said. After going through a rough patch, Chua admits that she now has a different and better outlook as far as competing is concerned. “Right now, I’m more positive with the way I approach my races. It’s not like before [when] I used to lack confidence. Never believed I can do it. I realized that I proved to myself that I am very much capable of being able to compete with other countries and that is something I also wanted to show homegrown talents back home – that local talents have what it takes to win as long as you put in the work that is required,” Chua explained. Looking ahead, Chua is now shifting her focus on two potential stints – the World Aquatics Championships - Fukuoka 2023 in July and the Asian Games in September. “We are looking into the Fukuoka World Championships in July. But as of now, they have not yet released the final lineup of swimmers who will be competing. And then in September, we also have the Asian Games,” the 23-year-old swimmer ended.