AIMING to make a splash in her Philippine debut in the 33rd Thailand Southeast Asian Games in December, Fil-Canadian swimmer Kayla Sanchez swept all of her six qualifying events yesterday in the SEA Games national team tryouts at the Teofilo Yldefonso pool inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.
Arriving just two days from Vancouver, Canada, before the swimfest organized by the Philippine Aquatics Inc., Sanchez, 24, met the qualifying standards in the women’s 50, 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle in 25.38 seconds, 55 seconds and 2:01.41, respectively.
A sophomore nursing student and varsity mainstay at the University of British Columbia, Sanches also met the qualifying times in the 50-meter and 100-meter backstroke races, clocking 29 seconds and 1:02.38, respectively, and the 50-meter butterfly in 27.46 seconds.
The winning times of Sanchez, who represented the Philippines in the Paris Olympics last year after switching citizenship in 2021 after a stint with the Canadian squad in the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games, in the 100 and 200-meter freestyle events were better than the gold-medal clocking of the winners in the 32nd Cambodia SEAG two years ago.
Her time of 55 seconds in the 100 free was slightly better than the 55.83 seconds of Singaporean Quah Ting Wen, while her time of 2:01.41 in the 200 free surpassed the 2:01.76 of another Singaporean tanker, Gan Ching Wee, in the Cambodia Games.
Her qualifying time of 25.38 seconds in the 25-meter freestyle is just a shade off Quah’s gold-medal clocking of 25.04 seconds.
“I am so excited now that it is official; I am on the SEA Games team!” exclaimed Sanchez, who will lead a lean and mean team of seven female and four male swimmers that will plunge into action in the Thai SEAG swimming meet starting Dec. 10 at the Hua Mark Sports Complex pool in the Thai capital of Bangkok.
“I hope to win as many golds as I can. And hopefully, we can do it in the 50, 100 and 100-meter freestyle because I am a freestyle specialist. I hold myself to a high standard to achieve it,” the athlete said.
“I practically slept all the way on the 12-hour flight from Vancouver so when I arrived, I just stayed awake overnight,” she said, adding that she would fly back to Canada after holding a two-day clinic at the Christ Commission Fellowship pool starting today.
Joining her are national teammate Xiandi Chua, who qualified in five events, and former national team mainstay Raven Alcoseba.
Chua, who turns 24 on Sept. 26, is keen on defending her SEA Games 200-meter backstroke title, where she set a national record of 2:13.20 in Morodok Techno Aquatics Center in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh in 2023.
Also among those who qualified for the women’s were Cambodia SEA Games relay silver Miranda Renner, Quendy Fernandez, Chloe Isleta, Heather White and Kyla Louise Bulaga, who at 15, will be the youngest member of the national team.
The men’s squad is composed of newcomers Gian Santos, Logan Noguchi and Joran Paul Uraga, who, like Sanchez, is a member of the UBC varsity squad, and all will make their SEAG debut in the Thai capital.
