NATIONAL track and field para coach Joel Deriada is eying one-armed runner and Cambodia Asean Para Games gold medalist King James Reyes as the country’s bipartite or wild card bet for the Paris Paralympic Games in August.
“King James might have a chance as a bipartite athlete so we might recommend him as one for the Paris Para Games,” said Deriada of the runner, who ruled the men’s 800-meter T46 event at the Morodok Techno Stadium oval in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh in June 2023.
He said the basis for the athlete’s endorsement was his sixth-place finish in the men’s 1,500-meter T46 event in the last Hangzhou Asian Para Games where he set a personal best of four minutes and 12.15 seconds.
The minimum entry standard for the event is 4:20.
Already certain of a making it to the quadrennial global sports showcase for para athletes slated Aug. 28 to Sep. 8 in the French capital is wheelchair racer Jerrold Mangliwan, who is making his second trip to the Paralympic Games after topping the men’s 400-meter T52 race in the Hangzhou APG.
Mangliwan’s winning time of 1:01.54 more than exceeded the minimum entry standard of 1:25 for the Paralympic Games.
Deriada said that wheelchair thrower Cendy Asusano, who won two golds in the Cambodian Asean Para Games, is likewise a shoo-in for Paris after placing fourth in the T54 women’s javelin throw in Hangzhou with a heave of 14.23 meters, just one centimeter short of the qualifying mark.
Should all three athletes make it, this will be more than the two para campaigners that qualified for the Tokyo Paralympic Games in 2021.
Mangliwan was one of them but blind thrower Jeanette Aceveda was unable to compete after she tested positive for the COVID-19 virus while already in the Japanese capital.
