Ernie Gawilan (left) shares a moment of inactivity with fellow swimmer Gary Bejino at the Tokyo Aquatic Center. -PHILIPPINE
SPORTS COMMISSION
MANILA, Philippines – Ernie Gawilan qualified for the men’s S7 400-meter freestyle final after finishing sixth overall out of nine competitors at the Tokyo Paralympic Games on Sunday at the Tokyo Aquatic Center.
The Philippine bet registered 4: 58.58 for fourth place in Heat 2.
This was Gawilan’s second event at the Paralympic Games and the first in which he qualified for the medal round after failing to advance to the final of the S7 men’s 200m individual medley on Friday.
World record holder Mark Malyar of Israel finished first in the preliminaries with a time of 4: 41.82 in Series 2 setting a new Paralympic record beating the previous time of 4: 42.81 that Great Britain’s Josef Craig set in 2012 in London.
Italian Federico Bicelli finished second overall, with a record of 4: 45.53, while Argentine Iñaki Basiloff was third in the preliminaries with a time of 4: 46.17 with both swimmers taking the pool in Series 2.
Ukrainian Andril Trusov was in fourth place overall with a record of 4: 57.23 in Heat 1, while American Evan Austin came in fifth with a time of 4: 57.35 in the same preliminary round.
Singapore’s Toh Wei Soong recorded 5: 03.82 in Heat 1 to finish seventh overall with Taiwan’s Chen Liang-da completing the finalists and placed eighth with a time of 5: 15.89 in Heat 2.
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