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Gawilan places 6th in 400m freestyle final

By Ivan Stewart Saldajeno

August 29, 2021, 5:35 pm

<p>Filipino para swimmer Ernie Gawilan <em>(Photo courtesy of Philippine Sports Commission)</em></p>

Filipino para swimmer Ernie Gawilan (Photo courtesy of Philippine Sports Commission)

MANILA – Filipino para swimmer Ernie Gawilan failed to land a medal in the Tokyo Olympics men's 400-meter freestyle S7 even after he was out of the Top 3 in the final despite a strong finish to his swim on Sunday at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre.

Gawilan finished in sixth place after clocking in at 4 minutes and 56.24 seconds, better than his preliminary swim earlier Sunday at 4:58.58.

He started the race slow and was seventh out of the eight finalists halfway through.

However, he turned on the jets in the final 150 meters to eventually overtake Singapore's Toh Wei Soong, who could not sustain a strong start that actually put him in medal contention 100 meters in.

Israel's Mark Malyar won the gold, Andrii Trusov of Ukraine took the silver, and the United States' Evan Austin grabbed the bronze.

Malyar broke the world record he himself set two years ago after topping the race at 4:31.06, two seconds faster than the old one at 4:33.64.

Malyar was way ahead of the pack as Trusov was behind him by 4.5 seconds and Austin was nearly eight seconds slower.

Gawilan will see action again in Heat 2 of the 100-meter backstroke S7 preliminaries on Monday at 8:03 a.m. (Philippine time). (PNA)

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