KAYLA Sanchez advanced to the semifinals of the women’s 100m freestyle of the 2024 Paris Olympics after placing 10th in the heats at the Paris La Defense Arena.
Sanchez placed third in Heat 4 with a clocking of 53.67 seconds, enough to secure a place in the semifinals given to the Top 16 among the 29 swimmers who qualified in the competition.
Sanchez also shattered her own Philippine record of 54.25 she set during the Mel Zajac Jr. International Meet in Vancouver, Canada last June 23.
She will compete in the semifinals after several hours as it is scheduled at 9:33 p.m. Paris time (Wednesday 3:33 a.m. Manila time).
World record holder Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden topped the heats with a time of 52.99, followed by Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong, already a silver medalist in Paris in the 200m freestyle, had the second-best time at 53.02.
The semifinalists include Americans Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh, who have already copped medals in Paris.
Huske won a gold in the 100m butterfly and silver in the 4x100 freestyle along with Walsh, who is in search of her first mint after placing second in the 100m butterfly by just .04 seconds against Huske.
Huske was seventh in the heats with a time of 53.54, only .01 second ahead of Walsh.
Sanchez is looking to reach the finals again in the Olympics, but for a different nation after her silver in the 4x100m freestyle and bronze in the 4x100m medley in Tokyo three years ago for Canada.
The 23-year-old switched nationalities from Canada to Philippines on July 2022.
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