THE coaching staff of the Philippine swimming team has pulled out Kayla Sanchez in her events on Wednesday to boost her bid to win a medal in the 50m freestyle, her last go-round in the 20th Asian Games.
Sanchez and her coaches are pulling out all the stops in attempting to end a 28-year medal drought in swimming by resting the Filipina swimmer for Thursday morning’s heat where she will try to qualify in the finals later in the day.
Sanchez was a DNS in the heats of the 100m backstroke on Wednesday, and also pulled out in the relay for Thursday.
“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 give her a rest,” Arabejo told the media pool.
“Ang 50 (meters), anything goes dyan... It’s anybody’s game.”
Sanchez nearly won a bronze in the 100m freestyle, falling short of a medal by 0.18 seconds behind a Chinese swimmer.
"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.
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