PRIMING for her debut in the Paris Paralympic Games in August, national para swimmer Angel Mae Otom bagged gold and silver medals in the Singapore leg of the Citi Para Swimming World Series over the weekend at the OCBC Aquatic Arena.
With the swimmers in the S5/SB6/SM5 women’s categories bunched together, Otom clocked 46.39 seconds and ranked second in the 50-meter butterfly to take the gold medal in the competition in one of the last meets before the Paris Paralympic Games.
A quadruple gold medalist in the 32n Cambodia Southeast Asian Games in 2023, the limbless swimming wonder also took the silver in the 50-meter backstroke with a time of 44.72 seconds, according to national para swimming coach Tony Ong.
Veteran national para swimmer Ernie Gawilan who, like Otom, is bound for the Paris Paralympic Games, clocked 5:03.14 to finish fifth in the men’s 400-meter freestyle S7/SB7/SM7 event and sixth in the 50-meter butterfly in 36:15 seconds.
Tokyo Paralympian Gary Bejino had his best outing in the men’s 50-meter S6/SB6/SM6 butterfly race, winding up in sixth place in 36.17 seconds.
Ariel Joseph Alegarbes narrowly missed a podium finish, placing fourth in the men’s 100-meter backstroke S14 in 1:02.89 and seventh in the 100-meteter butterfly (1:02.73).
Ong said he had endorsed Bejino and Alegarbes as bipartite entries for Paris through the Philippine Paralympic Committee and would know the outcome from the International Paralympic Committee by the second week of June.
All four swimmers will rejoin the rest of the national para swimming squad in training starting today at the Philsports pool in Pasig City, he said.
Fourth Hangzhou Asian Para Games gold medalist Jerrold Mangliwan was caught for lane infringement and was disqualified in the men’s 400-meter T52 finals of the World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan last Tuesday.
