PARIS—Para swimmer Ernie Gawilan topped his heat and qualified to the final of men’s 400m freestyle S7 set late Monday evening
in the 17th Paralympic Games here.
Gawilan, on his second Paralympics, clocked 5:00.13 in reaching the wall first in the second of two qualifying heats at the Paris La Defense Arena.
The two-time Asian Para Games champion in the event placed third overall in the rankings behind Austin Evan of the United States
(4:56.54) and Aleksei Ganiuk from the Neutral Paralympic Athletes squad (4:56.54).
“So far, maayos naman ang condition ko, kaya ibibigay ko na lahat sa final,’’ said Gawilan, who missed the podium in the event back in the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics.
Argentina’s Inaki Basiloff, the gold medalist in the 200m individual medley SM7, and bronze medalist Andrii Trusov of Ukraine likewise made it to the medal race, but obviously held back their punches. Basiloff clocked 5:17.33 and Trusov completed the race in 5:16.03.
Joining the final (11:30 p.m. Manila time) are Italy’s Federico Bicelli (5:05.51), China’s Huang Xianquan (5:16.03) and Ukraine’s
Yurii Shenhur (5:19.46), the bronze medalist in the 200m IM where Gawilan also competed.
