Close but not quite.
Filipino para swimmer and Davao’s best hope for a Paralympics medal Ernie Gawil ended his campaign in the Paris Paralympics.
The Dabawenyo Torpedo wrapped up his third straight Paralympics after placing sixth in the final of the men’s 400m freestyle S7 at the Paris La Defense Arena on Monday, September 2.
The reigning Asian Para Games champion clocked 5 minutes and 3.18 seconds in the eight-man race as he replicated his sixth-place finish in the same event in the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago.
Italy’s Federico Bicelli captured gold with a time of 4:38.70 following a tight battle with Ukraine’s Andrii Trusov (4:40.17) and Argentina’s Iñaki Basiloff (4:40.27).
Earlier, Gawilan led from start to finish in topping the second heat in a time of five minutes and .13
seconds to easily sail through the finals of the men’s 400-meter freestyle S7 event of the 17th Paralympic
Games swimming meet at the La Defense Arena here Monday.
As tropical storm Enteng lashed through Luzon, Gawilan stormed through the heat to finish third overall among the eight qualifiers
behind American topnotcher Austin Evan (4:56.48), who came from behind to relegate Neutral Paralympic Athlete Alekseei Ganiuk to runner-up honors (4:56.68) in heat 1.
“Hindi ko po binuhos lahat, mga 90 percent lang para maganda yung makuha ng magandang lane sa finals,” said the swimmer in making
his second straight finals in the event at 5:30 p.m. (11:30 p.m. in Manila) where he finished sixth in the Tokyo edition in 2021.
“Mas kundisyon po ako ngayon, Kailangan maghanda mamaya sa finals,” added 33-year-old Davao City native, who has a personal best
of 4:54.24 in the event when he made his Paralympic Games debut in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016.
Born with underdeveloped extremities, sporting one normal arm and having no legs, Gawilan could not help but notice the difference
between himself and his opponents in third straight stint in the sportsfest supported by the Philippine Sports Commission.
“Parang ako lang yung may kapansanan,” quipped the athlete with a smile at the post-swimming interview before heading to the locker room.
His performance was a great comeback after bowing out early in the men’s 200-meter individual medley SM7 event over the weekend.
Gawilan was the fastest from the get-go, completing the first 50 meters in 35.47 seconds, slowed down slightly at the halfway point, before gaining his second wind to finish strongly and way ahead of the pack.
