FILE–The Philippines’ Ernie Gawilan celebrates after winning in the final of the men’s 400m freestyle-S7 at the Aquatic Sports Arena in the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre during the 2022 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, in China’s eastern Zhejiang province on October 24, 2023. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP)
PARIS—Ernie Gawilan, who lacks both legs and is further hampered by an underdeveloped left limb, competes in a category in the Paralympic Games here that has a broad definition: the S7 class in swimming.
According to the classification of Paralympians, S7 “is for swimmers with movement affected from a low to moderate level in the arms, trunk and legs, moderately down one side, those with short stature, or the absence of limbs.”
Among the freestyle aces who reached the Final scheduled late Monday night (Manila time), Gawilan is the one who cannot stand. And that puts him at a disadvantage in the medal hunt.
Not that he is discouraged by the situation.
“So far, I feel good. I will pour everything I have into the final,” said Gawilan, who is on his second tour of duty in the Paralympics and a double gold medalist in the 400-meter free at the Asian Para Games.
Gawilan held his punches in storming through his heat to reach the final of the men’s 400-m freestyle S7 in the 17th Paralympic Games.
The Filipino para swimming ace touched the wall in 5:00.13 amid the cheers of a supportive crowd here at the Paris La Defense Arena and wound up third overall on his way to the medal race late on Monday evening.
“I didn’t give my all and so were the other swimmers in my heat,’’ said Gawilan in Filipino. “But this will set the tone on how I will perform in the final.”
Overall, Gawilan placed third after the qualifying heats, installing himself in a favorable position in the middle lanes.
Dreaming big
Favorites Inaki Basiloff of Argentina and Ukrainians Andrii Trusov and Yurii Shenhur likewise propelled themselves to the gold-medal race. All of them were in the same heat as Gawilan.
Basiloff, the gold medalist in the 200-m individual medley (IM) SM7 where Gawilan also competed, ranked seventh out of eight qualifiers (5:17.33) and Trusov, the current world champion and silver performer in the 200-m IM, placed sixth (5:16.03).
The bronze medalist, Shenhur, barely made the cut in 5:19.46.
Meanwhile, Angel Mae Otom won’t settle for anything less than the gold here.
Fifth in the para swimming world rankings, there’s little doubt on the 21-year-old Otom’s ability to place herself on the podium of the women’s 50-m backstroke S5 event on Tuesday at the Paris La Defense Arena pool.
“If you dream, why not the gold? So my goal here is to win at all costs,” said Otom, the nation’s quadruple gold medalist in the Asean Para Games in Cambodia last year, in Filipino.
The third-year student at the UP Diliman College of Human Kinetics will launch her bid in the fifth lane of the first of two heats alongside Chinese world No. 2 He Shenggao and Liu Yu. INQ