PARIS – Swimmer Kayla Sanchez scored a small victory despite her failed bid in the women’s 100m freestyle semifinals in the Paris Olympics at the sparkling Paris La Defense Arena late Tuesday, July 30, here.

She finished 15th overall but she can take comfort to the fact that she was able to compete in the semis for the second straight Olympics since helping Canada win two medals in team relays -- silver and bronze – in the Tokyo Games.

That enabled her to join the elite club of Filipino swimmers who managed to see action in the semis.

That club was founded by the great Teofilo Yldefonso, who was known as the “Ilocano Shark” after winning the country’s first Olympic medal in the 200m breaststroke in 1928. He collected another bronze in the same event four years later.

Other Filipino swimmers who managed to make it to the semis since the time of Yldefonso were Amman Jalmaani (1968) and Remedy Rule (Tokyo). Jaalmani, a Muslim, was a three-time Olympian and an Asian Games champion. 

She highlighted her performance by breaking her own national record after posting an impressive clocking of 53.67 seconds to finish at No. 10 among 29 swimmers in the prelims.

But the night ended disastrously for Sanchez as she struggled and finished a dismal seventh in her heat, her time of 54.21sec was more than a second behind American Gretchen Walsh, who grabbed the eighth and last finals berth.

Sanchez’s previous PH mark was 54.24sec she established in one of the heats during the Mel Zajac Jr. International Meet in Vancouver, Canada on June 23 this year.

As expected, the Hong Kong superstar topped the semis in 52.64 seconds followed by Australians Shayna Jack (52.72sec) and Mollie O’Callaghan (52.75sec).

Also making it to the finals are American rising star Torrie Huske, Chinese Yang Junxuan, Marrit Steenbergen of Netherlands, Sarah Sjoestroem of Sweden and Walsh.