Kayla Sanchez narrowly missed the podium in the Asian Games 2026 women’s 100m freestyle final on Tuesday at Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
Sanchez ranked third after the first lap but finished fourth in 53.65 seconds, falling short of the bronze medal by 0.18 seconds behind China’s Yujie Cheng (53.47).
Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong won gold with a time of 52.45 seconds, followed by silver medalist Yiting Yu of China (53.21).
Fellow Philippine team member Heather White placed last with a time of 56.01.
‘Kayla put it all on the table. She went for it. And she had a really very solid performance. It was a tough… we knew it was going to be a tough battle between the two Chinese girls that she was racing, and she just came out on the wrong side of the touch,’ Sanchez’s coach Derrick Schoof said.
The medal has remained elusive for Sanchez in Japan, where she won her Olympic medals as part of the Canadian swim team.
Sanchez reset the national record twice in the women’s 50-meter backstroke Monday but also missed the podium. She and the Philippine women’s team were also disqualified in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay final Sunday.
Meanwhile, Xiandi Chua placed eighth in the women’s 200m backstroke final, clocking 2:14.20.
China’s Xuwei Peng ended a 16-year-old Asian Games record at 2:05.77 to win gold. Mingxia Sun of China earned the silver (2:08.65), as Japan’s Rio Shirai trailed by just 0.05 seconds to settled for the bronze.
In the men’s events, Gian Santos finished last in the 400m individual medley in 4:25.90. He qualified eighth in the heats with a time of 4:24.25.
Yumeki Kojima of Japan set a new Asian Games record of 4:07.02, eclipsing the 2014 record set by fellow Japanese Kosuke Hagino (4:07.75) to win the gold.