Para swimmer Ernie Gawilan has made it to the medal round of the 400-meter freestyle S7 event in the World Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
CEBU CITY, Philippines—Filipino para swimmer Ernie Gawilan cruised to the medal round of the men’s 400-meter freestyle S7 event early morning on Sunday, August 29 in the ongoing World Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Gawilan, placed sixth overall in the qualifying heats that were held earlier today at the Tokyo Aquatic center.
He finished with 4 minutes and 58.58 seconds to grab the fourth spot in the second heat that was topped by Mark Malyar of Israel who dominated the 200m individual medley on the same day.
Other finalists in the event are Singapore’s Toh Wei Soong, American Evan Austin, Inaki Basiloff of Argentina, Federico Bicelli of Italy, and Andrii Trusov of Ukraine.
Gawilan, a triple gold medalist in the 2018 Asian Paralympic Games in Jakarta, Indonesia will be assigned to lane No. 7 in the finals at 5 PM (4PM Manila Time).
Gawilan already competed in the 400m individual medley, but fell short in making it to the finals last Friday.
However, he managed to set a new Philippine record in the event at 2:59.49 official time. He broke his own record of 2:52 which he logged in the 2018 Asian Paralympic Games. Gawilan was born without the lower part of both his legs and an underdeveloped left arm.
Gawilan is also a back-to-back gold medalist in the 2015 Singapore and 2017 Malaysia editions of the ASEAN Para Games. He is also a 2016 Paralympic Games veteran in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Aside fom Gawilan, wheelchair racer Jerrold Mangliwan will vie in the finals of the men’s 1,500-meter-T52 race at 8:42 p.m. (7:42 p.m.) over at the Japan National Stadium.
Like Gawilan, Mangliwan also competed in the 2016 Paralympic Games.
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