After a historic gold last Wednesday, the Philippines added another relay medal, taking silver in the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay on Sunday at the Sports Authority of Thailand Aquatics Center in Bangkok.
The same quartet of Xiandi Chua, Heather White, Chloe Isleta, and Kayla Sanchez — who had won gold in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay — tried to fend off Thailand, but the host nation held on to claim the top spot.
Chua, Isleta, White, and Sanchez had captured the shorter 4×100 relay title last Wednesday with 3:44.26 and finished the 4×200 relay with a new Philippine record of 8:11.55.
This mark shaved off a few ticks from the previous national record of 8:12.80, set in the Asian Games by Isleta, Chua, and Sanchez, alongside Teia Salvino.
”I’m so proud of my team. We knew when we came here, knowing it’s going to be a race, and we just gave it our all. And yeah, I’m quite emotional right now,” said Sanchez.
”We just left it out and swam with our hearts. We knew we could medal in this event, and it was fun, knowing all teams are competitive. So, we know this going to be a good race,” White added.
Thailand took gold in front of the home crowd with 8:10.10, while Vietnam completed the podium with 8:14.22, leaving the heavily-favored Singaporeans off the medals.
(C) POC Media
Earlier, Sanchez and White also earned individual medals in the 50-meter freestyle. Singapore’s Xiang Qi Amanda Lim won the race with a new Games record of 25.03 seconds.
Olympian Sanchez claimed her third silver with 25.15, a new Philippine record that shaved 0.13 seconds off her previous mark of 25.28 set at last year’s Mel Zajac Jr. International Meet while representing the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.
White completed the set for the Philippines with bronze at 25.38.
On the men’s side, Logan Noguchi added another medal for the Philippines, taking bronze in the 50-meter butterfly with 23.97 seconds.
