Olympic swimmer Miguel Molina will have his work cut out for him if he wants to repeat his spectacular four-gold medal show in the Thailand SEA Games two years ago.

That’s because the 2007 SEA Games Most Valuable Player (MVP) performed poorly in the men’s 200-meter freestyle in the 13th FINA World Championships Monday in Rome, Italy.

The two-time Olympian Molina, who turned 25 last week, clocked one minute and 54.02sec in the preliminaries, almost four seconds slower than his registered 1:50.50 qualifying time for the championships.

It was his slowest time since competing in the event during the 2004 Athen Olympics.

He registered 1:53.59 in winning the bronze medal during the Thailand Games and 1:52.83 in finishing second during the 2005 Manila Games. In the Athens Olympics, he clocked 1:53.81.

Singapore’s Joshua Lim, one of Molina’s top rivals in the coming Laos SEA Games this December, upstaged him by clocking 1:52.99.

The Singaporean finished 71st overall while Molina settled for 76th place.

Charles Walker, a new recruit for the RP team, also failed to make an impact like Molina as he timed 1:54.72.