By MARK REY MONTEJO
Two-time Olympian Kayla Sanchez and rising star Heather White delivered superb performances and bannered the first batch of Filipino qualifiers for the upcoming 33rd Southeast Asian Games during the rain-hit National Swimming Tryouts on Friday, Aug. 22.
Despite the massive flooding inside and outside of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila, the spirits of the national hopefuls were high with Fil-Canadian Sanchez and Fil-British White putting on brave and commanding performances.
A member of Canada’s silver winning team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Sanchez beat the qualifying time standards (QTS) in two events to assure herself of a slot in the national team.
Sanchez first ruled the women’s 100-meter freestyle in 55.00 seconds, shattering the 58.23 QTS. Her time was even faster than the 55.83 clocking of Singapore’s Quah Ting Wen, who bagged the gold in last year’s SEA Games in Cambodia.
White, the 2024 Asian Age Group silver medalist, also breached the QTS with a 56.23 effort. 2023 Cambodia SEA Games champion Xiandi Chua (56.95) and 2022 Hanoi winner Chloe Isleta (58.08) likewise broke the barrier.
Sanchez completed a golden double after topping the women’s 50-meter backstroke in 29.00 seconds, ahead of Palawan’s Quendy Fernandez (29.23) and Fil-Am SEA Games medalist Teia Isabella Salvino (29.85). Both Fernandez and Salvino also cleared the QTS, although Salvino fell short of her 28.99 bronze-medal time two years ago.
White’s friend and grassroots events’ multi-champion Micaela Mojdeh likewise secured her spot after timing 2 minutes and 18.18 seconds in the women’s 200m butterfly.
Filipino-Japanese standout Logan Wataru Noguchi also turned heads, pocketing two golds in QTS times. Noguchi ruled the men’s 100-meter freestyle in 50.18 seconds, beating Fil-Am world championship campaigner Gian Santos (51.30) and veteran Albert Amaro (51.48). He followed it up with a 26.04-second win in the 50-meter backstroke, where fellow Fil-Am Joran Paul Orogo (26.05), Fil-Mongolian Metin Junior Jason Mahmutoglu (26.53), and Ivo Nikolai Enot (26.69) also beating the QTS.
“Congratulations to the first batch of swimming qualifiers for the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Thailand 2025,” Philippine Aquatics, Inc. wrote on its social media post.
