Photo taken from Ernie Gawilan’s Facebook account
Ernie Gawilan delivered the Philippines’ first-ever gold medal in the 2018 Asian Para Games Sunday at Gelora Bung Karno Aquatic Stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Gawilan ruled the Para Swimming Men’s 200m Individual Medley SM7, clocking 2:52.43 to beat Chen Liang-Da of Chinese Taipei (2:55.90) and Jadhav Suyash Narayan of India (2:56.51).
The 27-year-old Gawilan, who was born with underdeveloped extremities, also bagged silver in the Men’s 50m Freestyle S7 with a time of 31.93 seconds behind gold medalist Wei Soong Toh (29.01 seconds) of Singapore while Narayan (32.16 seconds) wound up with his second bronze.
The Philippines won three more medals with Achelle Guion nabbing the silver medal in the 45kg powerlifting, Arthus Bucay winning the bronze in Para Cycling Men’s Time Trial and Gawilan’s teammate Gary Bejino finishing with a bronze in the 100m Backstroke.
With five medals overall, the Philippines is currently in eighth place in the medal tally as of posting time while China, which has 18 golds, leads the pack with 31 medals.