PARIS (Via PLDT Home)—Swimmer Kayla Sanchez failed in her bid in the women’s 100m freestyle semifinals in the Paris Olympics on Tuesday but won’t go home empty-handed.
Sanchez became the latest member of the exclusive club of Filipino swimmers who made it to the semifinals since the great Teofilo Yldefonso won the country’s first medal in the 200m breaststroke of the 1928 Games.
The other Filipino swimmers in the elite club are three-time Olympian and Asian Games champion Amman Jalmaani (1968) and Remedy Rule (Tokyo 2020).
Sanchez highlighted her performance by breaking her national record after posting an impressive clocking of 53.67 seconds to finish at No. 10 among 29 swimmers in the heats.
But the night ended sourly for Sanchez as she struggled and finished a dismal seventh in her heat, her time of 54.21 was more than a second behind American Gretchen Walsh, who grabbed the eighth and last finals berth.
Sanchez’s previous national mark was 54.24 which she established in one of the heats during the Mel Zajac Jr. International Meet in Vancouver, Canada last June 23.
Hong Kong-China’s Siobhan Bernadette Haughey tar topped the semifinals in 52.64 seconds followed by Australians Shayna Jack (52.72) and Mollie O’Callaghan (52.75).
