Tokyo Paralympics: PH swimmers Bejino, Gawilan miss the cut
FILE – The Philippines’ Gary Bejino during the men’s 400m freestyle event. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Filipino bets Ernie Gawilan and Gary Bejino missed the podium in their respective Tokyo Paralympic swimming events at Tokyo Aquatic Centre on 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, capping his three-event campaign.
He wound up in 10th place overall in the heats, 12.48 seconds behind Argentine Pipo Carlomagno, who led the eight finalists with a personal best time 1:09.12.
Bejino also didn’t make the cut in the men’s 50-meter butterfly-S6, placing seventh in the first heat in 36.14 seconds. He was 15th overall among 16 entries, 5.13 seconds behind gold medalist Wang Jingang of China.
While it was Gawilan’s swan song, Bejino still has two more races left in the 400-meter freestyle on Thursday and the 100-meter backstroke the next day.
“Ernie had a bit of a hard time in the 400-meter freestyle yesterday (Sunday). He was three seconds off his personal best in the backstroke,” said swimming coach Tony Ong after the Davao City swimmer’s performance.
