Kayla Sanchez added two silver medals to the Philippine national swimming team’s haul and set a new meet record on Day 2 of the 33rd Southeast Asian Games at the Sports Authority of Thailand Aquatics Center in Bangkok on Thursday.
The Olympian also broke her own national record, while Logan Noguchi shaved off a few ticks from a four-year-old Philippine mark.
Following her historic relay performance alongside Heather White, Xiandi Chua, and Chloe Isleta just days ago, Sanchez cruised into the finals of the women’s 50-meter backstroke with a new SEA Games record of 28.47 seconds.
Her time not only eclipsed the previous mark of 28.89 seconds set by Indonesia’s Masniari Wolf in Cambodia two years ago but also bettered her own national record of 28.66 seconds, established during her Asian Games debut in Hangzhou, China, in 2023.
In the medal race, Wolf narrowly edged out Sanchez to claim gold with 28.80 seconds.
Sanchez missed the top spot by just four hundredths of a second, while Thailand’s Saovanee Boonamphai shared the silver with an identical finish.
Moments after the victory ceremony, Sanchez returned to the pool to compete in the 200-meter freestyle final.
The 24-year-old led the early stages of the race alongside Singapore’s Ching Hwee Gan, but the younger Singaporean gradually pulled ahead and never looked back.
Gan captured gold in 2:00.02, two seconds ahead of Sanchez’s 2:02.19. Maria Nedelko narrowly took bronze over Thailand’s Kamonchanok Kwanmuang with a time of 2:02.76.
In the men’s 50-meter freestyle, Logan Noguchi finished fourth, setting a new Philippine national record of 22.55 seconds and surpassing Tokyo 2020 Olympian Luke Gebbie’s 22.57-second mark set in June 2021.
Noguchi missed the podium by just seven milliseconds behind Malaysia’s Yu Jing Tong, who clocked 22.48 seconds. Singapore’s Mikkel Jun Jie Lee and Tzen Wei Teong claimed gold and silver with 21.92 and 22.42 seconds, respectively.
