Kayla Noelle Sanchez, an 18-year-old Fil-Canadian champion swimmer, won the International Swimming League (ISL) tilt in London.
Swimming under her team Energy Standard, Sanchez secured an exciting victory at the London leg of the Women’s 200 Meter Freestyle Final that was held on November 22 at the London Aquatics Centre.
Sanchez swam like “Dyesebel” and went for it at the final lap as she swam past her teammate Femke Heemskerk (Netherland’s national record holder) and Federica Pellegrini, an Italian swimmer holding the 200-meter world record and Bejing Olympic Gold Medalist.
The International Swimming League is a newly established elite professional swimming league, composed of eight teams with both women and men competitors. The league consists of seven swimming meets which take place in seven cities around the world.
After 6 cities and 6 meets, Kayla is leading all swimmers in accumulated points, ahead of seasoned swim champions including Olympic gold medalist Chad le Clos of South Africa.
Sanchez has also qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, as part 4 x 100m and 4 x 200m freestyle relay for Canada, after winning bronze at the events at the FINA World Aquatics Championship in Gwangju, Korea.
She was born in Singapore, but her family was originally from Dau in Pampanga. The family then moved to Canada where her parents encouraged her to take up swimming and where she discovered her love and talent for the sport.
She won many medals as she was growing older, some of her victories were at the North York Aquatic Cup in Toronto and a gold medal in the 4 x 200 m freestyle at the World Junior Swimming Championship where they broke the championship and junior world record.
Her parents say they are hoping in the future that Kayla will be able to swim for the Philippines.
Filipino swimmers have been excelling in world competitions, among them, young swimmers Micaela Jasmine Mojdeh and Julia Basa who bagged multiple golds and set records at the Beijing All-Star Swimming Championships in China.
Philippine Swimming League tankers Marc Bryan Dula and Trump Christian Luistro led the country’s medal haul with 21 gold, 7 silver, and 4 bronze medals at the 2019 Thanyapura Invitational Swim Meet held in Phuket, Thailand.
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