THE quartet of Kayla Sanchez, Jasmine Alkhaldi, Xiandi Chua and Teia Salvino clocked three minutes and 46.93 seconds to wind up 12th overall in the women’s 4×100-meter relay of the 21st World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar last Monday.
Making their debut as a team in the world meet, Filipino-Canadian Sanchez swam the opening leg in 55.04 seconds, veteran Alkhaldi took over in the second leg to clock 57.51, followed by Chua in the penultimate leg (57.48) before Salvino capped the race with a time of 56.90 seconds.
They failed to reach the eight-team finals where the Netherlands squad of Kim Busch, Jane Van Kooten, Kira Toussaint, and Marrit Steenbergen ruled the event in 3:36.61, nosing out Australia (3.36.93) while Canada (3:37.97) settled for the bronze in the competition serving as a qualifier for the Paris Olympic Games in July.
While they failed to reach the finals, the Pinoy squad managed to earn 769 World Aquatics ranking points.
Based on the WA’s Olympic guidelines, the remaining 13 teams vying for qualification with the fastest times from the heats and finals in the 2023 and 2024 editions make it to the relay event in Paris.
The Philippines, however, did not field a team in the event in the previous worlds held in Fukuoka, Japan.
Scheduled to compete for the country yesterday was Cambodia Southeast Asian Games silver medalist Jerard Jacinto in the first heat of the men’s 100-meter breaststroke at 2:53 pm. (7:53 Manila time).
