FILE – Photo from PSC
MANILA, Philippines—Jerrold Mangliwan is determined to redeem himself following his disqualification in the finals of the men’s 400-meter T52 in the Tokyo Paralympic Games.
The country’s flag bearer during the opening ceremonies, Mangliwan will take up Lane 4 in the finals of the men’s 1,500m T52 on Sunday at the Olympic Stadium.
Mangliwan’s coach Joel Deriada, who’s in Manila after testing positive for COVID-19, said the athlete wasn’t aware of his disqualification as he left the track immediately after looking at the final time records.
Had he finished the race cleanly, Mangliwan would’ve ended up with a time of 1:00.80 making him the Philippine record holder in the event.
“Jerrold didn’t know that he was disqualified because he left immediately left the track after looking at the results,” said Deriada in Filipino. “He was already in the dining hall when I talked to him.”
“I asked him if he knew that he entered the lane of his opponent and he told me ‘no coach because I had my eyes closed when I was near the finish line and I was giving it my all.’”
Mangliwan, who was in lane 3, violated Rule 18.5a of the World Para Athletics after he crossed lane 2 of Austria’s Thomas Geierspichler near the finish line.
The United States’ Isaiah Rigo, who was in lane 9, also committed the same mistake and was also disqualified from the race.
Deriada said that Mangliwan’s right arm is stronger than the left and this slight imbalance could’ve caused the lane infringement especially with the Filipino bet going full throttle near the finish line.
“He might have gone left and entered the lane because of the strength of his arm,” said Deriada, who added that Mangliwan was frustrated with his disqualification. “He’s a fighter and got over it right away. He is looking forward to racing on Sunday.”