Olympic medalist, golfers hike PH team count to 20

Kayla Noelle Sanchez of the Philippines is seen during the 19th Asian Games Women’s 400m Freestyle Swimming Final held at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Aquatic Sports Arena in Hangzhou, China. Sanchez finished with a time of 54.69 seconds. (Photo by Luis Veniegra / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)No Use Germany.

Double Olympic medalist Kayla Sanchez will bring more prestige to a Philippine delegation brimming with potential podium finishers like her in the grandest sports showpiece on earth.

Sanchez, a silver and bronze performer in the swimming relay events of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics while carrying the Canadian colors, now represents the Philippines and will showcase her worth in the women’s 100-meter freestyle while Jarod Hatch, bronze medalist in the men’s 50-m butterfly of the Southeast Asian Games last year, likewise made it to the glitzy French capital.

They both qualified through universality with Hatch seeing action in the 100-m butterfly.

“[W]e’re expecting more. We’re chasing history and we’re setting the ante higher,’’ said Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, whose goal is to surpass or match the nation’s one-gold, two-silver and one-bronze medal output in Tokyo.

The latest batch of Olympic qualifiers brings to 20 the number of Filipinos who will compete in Paris. And while Sanchez represents a foreign ace flying back to represents her roots, the Olympic roster will also feature two Filipinos who were once members of the national team but are now representing other countries.

Golfer Yuka Saso, a two-Major winner who played for the Philippines in the Tokyo Olympics, qualified for Japan this time while fencer Maxine Esteban, a multi-World Cup medalist for the country who was once the highest-rated Filipino in the world rankings, will compete in the French capital representing Ivory Coast.

In Saso’s place, two Filipino golfers will vie for medals in Paris, Bianca Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina.

The two standouts were part of the names released by the international golf federation as the official qualifiers for women’s golf, along with Saso.

Two-time judo Olympian Kiyomi Watanabe was also added to the Philippine roster after qualifying through the continental quota.

The Filipino-Japanese from Mandaue, Cebu, secured one of the two Asian quotas in the women’s -63-kg division after ranking No. 92 in the world.

Meanwhile, in athletics, at least three to four tracksters could join pole vaulter EJ Obiena in the biggest track and field spectacle in the world. INQ