FILIPINO-AMERICAN swimmer Maxime Rooney was unable to fulfill his Olympic dreams as he fell one place short of making it into the final round of the U.S Olympic Trials yesterday in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
The 18-year-old Rooney, who is born to a Cebuano father, wound up ninth in the 200-meter freestyle semifinals after clocking 1:47:98, just a few ticks of a second behind the last finalist Jonathan Roberts.
Roberts ranked eighth with a time of 1:47:84.
Things didn’t go Rooney’s way after he slowed down in the 100-meter freestyle division where he finished 11th by completing the race in 49.26 seconds.
Rooney had a strong showing in the preliminary round where he he made it to the top ten.
He finished seventh with a time of 49.14 seconds behind multi-titled Olympian Ryan Lotche, who timed 49.13 seconds.