Kayla Sanchez is on her way to emerging as the most bemedalled Filipino athlete as the 33rd Southeast Asian Games start to wind down.
Sanchez, who won a pair of medals for Canada in the relay events of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, made a huge splash in her SEA Games debut, scooping three gold and five silver medals in the swimming competition at the Sports Authority of Thailand Pool in Bangkok.
She anchored the country to its first-ever triumph in the 4x100m freestyle relay then took solo wins in the 100m freestyle and 100m backstroke events, complementing these with runner-up finishes in 50m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 50m backstroke, 4x200m freestyle relay and 4x100m medley relay.
The 24-year-old Sanchez went up the podium one last time to share the stage with Xiandi Chua, Heather White and Miranda Renner to close one of the most successful participations of the Filipino tankers in the recent editions of the biennial meet.
Her exploits lifted the swimming delegation to a 3-9-2 gold-silver-bronze harvest – a huge improvement from the 1-3-3 two years ago in Cambodia without her two years ago.
With that, she stands to earn a total of P1.2 million from the Philippine Sports Commission aside from other perks and bonuses that are expected to be given by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino and other private sponsors.
According to the Republic Act 10699 or the Athletes and Coaches Benefits and Incentives Act, a gold medalist in the SEA Games stands to receive a cash incentive of P300,000 while silver and bronze medalists get P150,000 and P100,000, respectively. The law also states that the team events will receive the same amount, but will be divided among the members of the team if they are less than five.
Akiko Thomson, who served as commissioner of the Philippine Sports Commission, was the last Filipina to win three gold medals in the SEA Games after shining in the 1989 edition in Kuala Lumpur before dominating anew in the 1991 edition in Manila and 1993 in Singapore.
Since then, Filipina swimmers had some sort of a dry spell with Jasmine Alkhaldi emerging as the only Filipina to land on the medal standing. She was supposed to win the gold medal in the women’s 100-meter butterfly event of the 2013 SEA Games in Myanmar but the organizers ordered a re-swim due to false start, prompting Alkhaldi to settle for the bronze medal.