The 18-year-old Lacuna, instructed by coach Pinky Brosas to “swim his pace and make the most out of it”, competes in the second of six heats at around 10:30 a.m. against Mario Montoy of Costa Rica, Sebastian Madico of Peru, Radovan Siljevski of Serbia, Matias Koski of Finland and Raul Martinez Colomer of Puerto Rico.
His qualifying time is 1 minute and 52.23 seconds in the only event he’s allowed to compete in being a qualifier under the Üniversality rule of the world swimming body, which is about as fast as that of his five rivals in the heat.
“He’s in high spirit. Ginaganahang lumangoy dahil he has started to get a feel of what the Olympics is all about,”said Brosas after accompanying Lacuna and Jasmine Alkhaldi in a practice on Thursday.
Alkhaldi is the only the other Filipino swimmer in this Games. She will see action on August 1 in the 100-m freestyle.
Frankly,the future offers very little hopes for Lacuna in the event where the top 16 bets with the best times after six heats advance to the semifinals.
Under a new rule of the world body, swimmers are pre-ranked according to their world rankings in the continental trials and will be grouped together in the heats according to their relative strength, thus making the contest more exciting to watch.
Without a doubt, the swimmer to watch is American Ryan Lochte, who is expected to give compatriot and Beijing Olympics wonder boy Michael Phelps a run for his money as he tries to add more to an already bulging collection of 16 gold medals.
He’s scheduled to see action in the first heat against seven others and is hands-down-choice to make the semifinals along with Yannick Agnel of France.
Rochte's qualifying time is 1:44.44, or almost eight seconds faster than Lacuna's.
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