Kayla Sanchez was within touching distance of an elusive Asian Games medal, only to see her podium hopes disappear by a fraction of a second.
Sanchez finished fourth in the women’s 100-meter freestyle final on Tuesday, clocking 53.65 seconds at the 20th Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan. The Filipino-Canadian swimmer missed bronze by just 0.18 seconds, with China’s Cheng Yujie taking third in 53.47.
Sanchez’s result came after an encouraging morning performance, where she posted the second-fastest time in the heats at 54.22 seconds to advance to the medal race.
She was also among the medal contenders at the halfway mark of the final, holding third after the opening 50 meters. But Cheng and fellow Chinese swimmer Yu Yiting pulled ahead in the closing meters.
Hong Kong star Siobhan Haughey claimed the gold in 52.45 seconds, while Yu Yiting settled for silver in 53.21.
The narrow defeat was particularly painful for Sanchez, who was attempting to become the first Filipino swimmer in 28 years to win an Asian Games medal.
Ryan Papa remains the last Philippine swimmer to accomplish the feat, taking bronze in the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke events at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok.
Sanchez was visibly disappointed following the race and chose not to go through the mixed zone. Still, her coach, Derrick Schoof, said Sanchez could not have asked for much more from her performance.
“Kayla put it all on the table. She went for it. And she had a really very solid performance,” Schoof said. “It was a tough… we knew it was going to be a tough battle between the two Chinese girls that she was racing, and she just came out on the wrong side of the touch.”
Schoof also expected Haughey to contend for the top spot, given the Hong Kong swimmer’s pedigree.
“Siobhan Haughey is a world-class swimmer. She is an Olympic medalist. We knew that she was going to be, you know, the standout swimmer of the race,” he said.
“And we knew that the race was going to be between the two Chinese girls and Kayla for that silver and bronze medal.”
Despite falling short of the podium, Sanchez has already produced record-breaking performances in Nagoya.
She set a Philippine record of 28.19 seconds in the 50-meter backstroke before recording another national-best mark of 28.24 seconds.
The 25-year-old still has two events left on her schedule, beginning with the 100-meter backstroke on Wednesday before returning to the pool for the 50-meter freestyle on Thursday.
Schoof believes the setback can serve as motivation for Sanchez in the coming races.
“As a group we’re really happy with how we’re swimming so far. We’re very positive. We were excited to have four final swims tonight,” he said.
“Of course, we’re disappointed that we didn’t get the medal right there. But there are still more chances to come, and I think in a couple of days Kayla’s going to put up a really good 50 freestyle.”
