It took a brand new national record for Kayla Sanchez to punch a ticket into the semifinals of the women's 100-meter freestyle in the Olympic Games Paris 2024
Kayla Sanchez surely splashed her way on.
Sanchez qualified into the semifinals of the women's 100m freestyle after clocking in at 53.67 seconds in heat 4 of the prelims on Tuesday (Philippine time), a time that was good for a fourth place finish.
Kayla, who has a silver and bronze medal from Tokyo 2020 when she swam for Canada, finished in the top-10 following all heats and advanced to the semifinals with 16 qualifiers contending in the next round.
Her splendid performance allowed her to reset her own national record she set last June in the Mel Zajac Jr. International Meet in Canada, where she clocked in with a 54.25-second finish.
Sanchez started out strong and was among the top-3 midway through the race before just barely sustaining her pace in the return lap, staying within the leaders in the final stretch.
World record holder Sarah Sjoestroem of Sweden (51.71 seconds) topped the field after she clocked 52.99 seconds, followed by Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong, who registered 53.02 seconds. Junxuan Yang of China came in third with 53.05 seconds.
Sanchez will plunge right back into action on Wednesday (Philippine time) for the semifinals, where the top-8 swimmers will advance to the finals. The championship round is slated on August 1 at 2:30 a.m.