TOKYO. – Ernie Gawilan and Gary Bejino missed the finals of their events after completing their qualifying heats in the Tokyo Paralympic swimming competitions at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre here Monday.
Seemingly spent after his all-out effort the previous day, Gawilan finished sixth and last in the second heat of the men’s 100-meter backstroke-S7 race in a time of one minute and 21.60 seconds, ending his campaign in three events.
He came in 10th overall in the heats, 12.48 seconds behind Argentine topnotcher Pipo Carlomagno, who led the eight finalists with a personal best time of 1:09.12.
Bejino also missed a finals slot in the men’s 50-meter butterfly-S6 event, placing seventh in the first heat in 36.14 seconds, and finished 15th overall among 16 entries, 5.13 seconds behind China’s Wang Jingang, who showed the way to the finals in30.81 seconds. The top eight qualifiers in both events advanced to the finals later in the day.
Bejino still has two more races left in the 400-meter freestyle on Thursday and the 100-meter backstroke the next day as he closed out the gallant stand of the Filipino Paralympians, whose participation here is backed by the Philippine Sports Commission.
“Medyo nahirapan si Ernie sa 400-meter freestyle yesterday (Sunday). He was three seconds off his personal best in the backstroke,” noted swimming coach Tony Ong.
“I believe that Gary’s time of 36.14 seconds is his personal best, if I am not mistaken. Nagbago kami ng stroke because of the new rule in the butterfly event. He still got a very good time,” Ong added.
“Our kids (Gawilan and Bejino) are very talented. I just hope we can have a longer training period for next year’s Asian Para Games,” he said of the meet set Oct. 9 to 15, 2022 in Hangzhou, China.
