Sanchez gets clearance to suit up for PH internationally and chance to medal in Olympics
Kayla Sanchez, right here understanding within the pool at PhilSports final 12 months, lastly will get her much-awaited World Aquatics clearance. —PHOTOS BY JUNE NAVARRO, PSI
Now that the most important stumbling block has been taken out, two-time Olympic medalist Kayla Sanchez in a nationwide crew swimsuit, appears to be like each inch because the rebirth of Philippine swimming.
The 22-year-old Sanchez, whose change of nationality from Canada to the Philippines was lately permitted by World Aquatics, is a medal machine based mostly on her clockings, and she will begin proving that within the coming nineteenth Asian Video games (Asiad) the place she is a surefire contender for gold medals in not less than three occasions—50-meter (m), 100m and 200m freestyle.
“I’m at all times striving to get higher. I’m very hardworking and I wish to obtain nice issues for the Philippines,’’ stated Sanchez, who helped Workforce Canada nail a silver medal within the 4x100m freestyle relay and a bronze within the 4x100m medley relay within the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
World tilt medals
Sanchez additionally cornered a pair of silvers within the 4x100m freestyle and blended 4x100m freestyle relays for Canada in addition to bronzes within the 4x200m free and 4x100m medley relays throughout the 2022 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Born to Filipino mother and father Noel and Susana who migrated to Canada when Kayla was nonetheless a toddler, Sanchez additionally looms to be a possible record-breaking expertise within the Southeast Asian Video games beginning with the 2025 version in Thailand within the 50m, 100m, 200m free, 50m and 100m backstroke and 200m particular person medley occasions.
However what’s most enjoyable is the potential of Sanchez standing on the rostrum of subsequent 12 months’s 2024 Paris Olympics.
‘Robust anchor’
“The World Aquatics has permitted the request for the game nationality’s change of the athlete (Sanchez), born on 7 April 2001, within the aquatics sports activities of swimming, from Canada to Philippines,’’ stated World Aquatics authorized counsel Loic Loutan in a letter transmitted to the Philippine Olympic Committee.
“Due to this fact, the athlete is entitled to symbolize the Philippines in worldwide competitions from 6 July 2023 onwards,’’ added Loutan.
“Thanks a lot for serving to me get the approval from World Aquatics,’’ Sanchez instructed Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham Tolentino, whose company pursued the switch of Sanchez.
“The nation now has a really robust anchor in its nationwide swimming crew,’’ stated Tolentino.
The Asiad, slated in Hangzhou, China on Sept. 23 to Oct. 8, might be Sanchez’ first occasion as a Filipino.
Upon the recommendation of her coach, Sanchez will skip the World Aquatics Championships beginning July 14 in Fukuoka, Japan.
No Filipino swimmer has gained a medal within the Olympics since Teófilo Yldefonso claimed a pair of bronzes within the 1928 Amsterdam and 1932 Los Angeles Video games.
Sanchez can break that medal drought in Paris. INQ
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