NATIONAL para swimmer Angel Mae Otom attained a new milestone over the weekend, ruling the women’s 50-meter backstroke event of the World Para Swimming series fifth leg at the OCBC Aquatic Center in Singapore.
In her impressive debut in the prestigious competition, the limbless Otom emerged as a runaway winner with a time of 42 seconds flat, nearly 10 seconds faster than Tokyo Paralympic veteran Maori Yuri of Japan, who clocked 53.13 seconds.
The Olongapo City pride was also more than 13 seconds faster than Greece’s Alexandra Stamatopolou (56.44), who bagged a bronze medal in the same event in the Tokyo Para Games.
The lone female swimmer in the nine-man national para swimming squad, Otom had earlier won a bronze medal in the women’s 50-meter butterfly event with a time of 49.97 seconds.
Her strong outing bodes well in her bid to duplicate the three golds she won in the 11th Asean Para Games in Surakarta, Indonesia last year when the Cambodian edition unfolds in July, according to national team deputy chief of mission Irene Santiago-Remo.
Remo also thanked the Philippine Sports Commission for funding the outing that also served as the buildup of the national para swimmers for the 12th Cambodia Asean Para Games.