PARIS. – The right coach for the right athlete will undoubtedly produce the right results.
And while their partnership may not have been made in heaven, the collaboration between national assistant para swimming coach Brian Ong and Angel Mae Otom for nearly five years has given the country outstanding outcomes in international play.
In their maiden overseas outing together at the 2021 Asian Youth Para Games in Manama, Bahrain, Ong guided the wet-eared swimmer to a bronze medal in women’s 100-meter freestyle multi-class for her first international medal.
The succeeding year in 2022, in her debut at the Asean Para Games in Surakarta, Indonesia, Otom showed marked improvement by bagging three gold medals in the women’s 50-meter backstroke S5, 50-meter butterfly S5 and 50-meter butterfly.
Last year in Cambodia, their alliance resulted in four mints, adding the women’s 200-meter individual medley S5 title to her collection to emerge as the most bemedalled para swimmer in the regional sportsfest.
Under Ong’s watchful eye, Otom reached two finals in the women’s 50-meter backstroke and 50-meter butterfly S5 events, here to highlight her and the country’s campaign in the sports extravaganza for physically challenged athletes.
The 21-year-old armless mermaid placed fifth in the backstroke in 44 seconds flat, giving the vaunted Chinese troika of Lu Dong, He Shenggao and Liu Yu a run for their money before fading in the stretch.
