Courtesy: POC Media
National coach Ryan Arabejo confirmed that the Philippine swimming team decided to scratch Kayla Sanchez from the Asian Games women’s 100m backstroke held this morning at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
This is to “prioritize her physical recovery for her strongest event”, which is the 50m freestyle set on Thursday, and give her the “absolute best shot at gold,” according to Arabejo.
“Dun tayo sa kaya nating ma-control. So, if we can rest Kayla and prepare her better for tomorrow’s 50 meters where she has a very, very good chance of winning a gold, we gave her a rest,” said Arabejo, who competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
“Ang 50, anything goes dyan. It’s anybody’s game,” he added.
The development came after the 25-year-old Sanchez narrowly missed delivering the Philippines its first Asiad swimming medal since 1998 on Tuesday afternoon, when she finished only fourth in the 100m freestyle final.
The 25-year-old two-time Olympic medalist fought tooth and nail to the very last stroke and clocked 53.65 seconds.
However, she ended up 1.20 seconds behind Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey (52.45), the gold medalist and Asian Games and Asian record-holder.
Chinese swimmers Yu Yiting (53.21) and Yujie Cheng (53.47) took home the silver and bronze medals, respectively, both beating Sanchez by the skin of their teeth.
“She took the risk and went harder in the beginning, naunahan lang sa very last stroke, so we move on to the next,” Arabejo said.
Heather White ranked 10th in the same event, with a 56.01-second swim.
NO MEDALS YET, BUT PINOY TANKERS KEEP THE SEARCH
In other results, Xiandi Chua checked in at 2:14.20 seconds for an eighth-place finish in the women’s 200m backstroke final.
She then submitted a time of 4:51.93 seconds and placed seventh to qualify for the women’s 400m individual medley final.
Meanwhile, Gian Santos set a new Philippine record of 1:49.34 in the men’s 200m freestyle to reach final as the eighth fastest swimmer in the Heats.
He erased his old mark of 1:49.78 established at the Pan Pacific Championships in the U.S. just last month.
However, Santos placed 10th and last in the men’s 400m individual medley final with a time of four minutes and 25.90 seconds.
The quartet of Santos, Teia Salvino, Logan Noguchi, and Heather White powered the Philippines to the mixed 4x100m medley relay final after finishing seventh in the qualifications with a time of three minutes and 57.12 seconds.
Noguchi failed to reach the men’s 100m butterfly final, while Salvino was also a DNS in the women’s 100m backstroke and missed the 100m butterfly final.
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