Kayla Sanchez leads 14-man swimming team in first SEA Games foray

August 28 ------ Two-time Olympic medalist Kayla Sanchez will banner the Philippine swimming team’s coming campaign in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Thailand. The 24-year-old Fil-Canadian is going to see action in six events when she makes her debut in the biennial regional meet set Dec. 9-20 in the capital city of Bangkok and the provinces of Chonburi and Songkhla.

Sanchez breached all the qualifying time standards set by the Philippine Aquatics Inc. during the recent national tryouts held at the Teofilo Yldefonso Swimming Center at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex to earn her spot in the 14-man national team. She qualified in the 100m freestyle, 50m backstroke, 200m freestyle, 50m butterfly, 100m backstroke, and 50m freestyle.

The product of University of British Columbia was impressive in her pet event the 100m freestyle that her clocking of 55 seconds was actually faster than the 55.83 clocking of Singapore’s Quah Ting Wen on the way to winning the gold in the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia. Since changing nationality in 2023, Sanchez had represented the country in the Hangzhou Asian Games and the Paris Olympics, where she reached the semifinals of the women’s 100m freestyle.

Prior to carrying the country’s colors, she previously competed for Canada where she won a silver medal in the women’s 4x100m freestyle and a bronze medal in the 4x100m medley during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She also won three golds during the 15th FINA World Swimming Championships in Abu Dhabi in 2021, namely the 4x100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle, and the 4x50m mixed freestyle.

Xiandi Chua, who accounted for one of the two gold medals the country won in the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia, will compete in five events including the 200m backstroke, where she is the defending champion after setting a new Games record of 2:13.20 two years ago. Teia Isabella Salvino will also defend her gold medal in the women’s 100m backstroke after making the team along with veterans and medal winners Chloe Isleta and Miranda Renner, and Fil-foreign bets and first timers Gian Santos, Metin Junior Jason Mahmutoglu, Joran Paul Orogoco, Logan Wataru Noguchi, and Heather White.

Completing the national squad are Ivo Nikolai Enot, Quendy Fernandez, Micaela Jasmine Mojdeh, and Kyla Louise Bulaga, the youngest member of the team at 15 years old. The Philippines won two golds, six silvers, and eight bronzes to finish fifth in swimming competitions topped by perennial power Singapore during the Cambodia edition of the SEA Games. “We are proud of their achievements and hopeful that they will carry the Philippine flag with honor in Bangkok,” said PAI secretary-general and SEA Games multiple gold winner Eric Buhain.

Source: spin.ph