After falling short in her previous event, Olympian Kyla Sanchez is rolling the dice, going all out in the women’s 50-meter freestyle event in a bid to capture her first medal in the 20th Asian Games at the Tokyo Aquatics Center in Tokyo, Japan.

National team coach Ryan Arabejo revealed that the Filipino-Canadian short-distance specialist decided to forego the women’s 100m backstroke event to prioritize her recovery for her pet event – the 50m freestyle – that will be held on Thursday. 

She was also a late scratch in the mixed 4x100m relay duties to maximize her recovery time.

“Let’s focus on what we can control. If we can rest Kayla and prepare her better for tomorrow’s 50-meter event, where she has a very good chance of winning gold, then we decided to give her a rest,” said Arabejo, a member of the national squad that competed in the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Hopes were high on the 25-year-old medalist in the Tokyo Olympics. She, however, narrowly missed the podium in the women’s 100-meter freestyle final on Tuesday, clocking 53.65 seconds to finish behind bronze medalist Yujie Cheng of China (53.47).

Arabejo expressed regret over the dismal result, but stressed that they have to move on and focus on the things they can control.

“She took the risk and went harder at the beginning. She was just beaten on the very last stroke, so we move on to the next one,” Arabejo said, adding that getting enough rest will set the stage for Sanchez’s medal-winning performance in her favorite event.

“The 50m free is anything goes. It’s anybody’s game.”