KAYLA Sanchez, who won two Olympic medals for Canada, reset her own Philippine record in the women’s 100-meter freestyle after clocking 53.46 seconds in the 2026 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center in Irvine, California.
The 25-year-old swimmer, who place sixth in Irvine, erased her previous best time of 53.67 seconds at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Meg Harris of Australia clocked 52.60 seconds to rule the event while Gretchen Walsh of the United States (52.78) and Olivia Wunsch of Australia (52.98) claimed the silver and bronze medals, respectively.
Before switching to represent the Philippines in 2023, Sanchez won two Olympic medals — a silver in the 4x100m women’s freestyle and a bronze in the 4x100m women’s medley relay — in the 2020 Tokyo Games where she represented Canada.
In the 2024 Paris Olympics, she reached the semifinal stage with a time of 54.21 seconds in the 100-m freestyle category, finishing fourth in the heat and making the 16-player semis cut.
She wrapped up her Paris campaign, finishing 10th in the category.
Sanchez debuted in the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand with an impressive haul of eight medals built on three golds and five silvers, across all her eight events, and anchored the team to a historic gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay event.
She also leads the six swimming delegates to represent the Philippines in the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.